Analyses

The Ministry of Health and Care Services proposes changing the central health administration’s organization, roles, and responsibilities. The last reorganization of the central administration took place in 2016. The upcoming changes will directly impact various institutions, including the Directorate of Health, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), the Directorate of eHealth (NDE), the Cancer Registry and the Norwegian Medicines Agency. More specifically, the Ministry is putting forward the following changes [1]:

• Concentrating all heath registers in the NIPH: The responsibility for governing the Patient Registry (NPR) and the Municipal Patient and User Registry (KPR) will be transferred from the Directorate of Health to the NIPH. The NIPH will also take on the responsibility of overseeing the Cancer Registry at Oslo University Hospital.
• Merging the NDE with the Directorate of Health: As a result, the Directorate of Health will be responsible for the digitalization of the health care sector. However, one task from the NDE, administering e-Health methodology and managing health registers, will now be transferred to the NIPH.
• The Norwegian Medicines Agency will become the Directorate for Medical Products: The responsibility for medicines and medical equipment (medical products) is continued, but the agency is given greater responsibility for purchasing medicines and medical equipment. Further, the responsibility for the preparedness and security of supply in the vaccine field is transferred from the NIPH to the Directorate for Medical Products. The overall responsibility for the methodological assessment of medical products is also transferred from the NIPH to the Directorate.
• Distribution of tasks between the Directorate of Health and NIPH: All regulatory functions, implementation functions and registry analyses will be consolidated in the Directorate of Health. The NIPH will retain its monitoring responsibility in infection control and environmental medicine. However, formal regulatory functions will be moved to the Directorate of Health.