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Ageing Int (2012) 37:125142
DOI 10.1007/s12126-010-9099-3
Frode F. Jacobsen & Tone Elin Mekki
Published online: 11 January 2011# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract This article aims to describe and discuss the health care system in Norway in a social, cultural and material context, with a main focus on the (the largely municipal) elderly care sector as part of a changing welfare state. The elderly care sector in Norway is extensive and mainly public, with only a small fraction being run by commercial firms or by voluntary organizations. As the Norwegian welfare state has been changing quite much during the latest two decades, the same holds true for the elderly care sector.
Keywords Elderly care . Welfare state . Norway
Introduction
While home-based care is increasingly developed in the municipalities, nursing homes play a more significant role in the care for the elderly sick in Norway than in any other European country (Statistics Norway 2007). Care for elderly sick in medically specialized hospital settings, though, is less pronounced in Norway than in the rest of Europe. Hence the care for elderly sick may be said to be less a part of high-tech medical surroundings and more decentralized in Norway than in the bulk of European countries, with most nursing homes close to the home communities of
F. F. Jacobsen (*) : T. E. Mekki
Centre for Care Research, Western Norway, Bergen, Norway e-mail: [email protected]
T. E. Mekki e-mail: [email protected]
F. F. Jacobsen : T. E. Mekki
Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway
F. F. Jacobsen
Betanien University College, Bergen, Norway
Health and the Changing Welfare State in Norway: A Focus on Municipal Health Care for Elderly Sick
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the patients. This is a challenge both economically and in terms of infrastructure with regard to the sparse and dispersed population of Norway. How this challenge is met, has been changing during the latest two decades. Before dealing with this issue and what it implies for the municipal elderly care sector, the various relevant contexts of the Norwegian welfare system will be discussed.
Norway is a monarchy with a parliamentary government and a population of around 4.6 mill people. The Norwegian health care system is part and parcel of the Norwegian welfare state,...