PriCare: A Project on Prioritization in Health and Care Services

The PriCare project aims to develop new knowledge and insight into the challenges of prioritization in health and care services in Norwegian municipalities.

Project Summary

Over the past decade, the municipal health and care services in Norway have undergone dramatic changes, with new areas of responsibility, tasks, content, and organization. Municipalities have considerable freedom to design services, which has led to a wide variety of service models. Developing services for the population within tight budget constraints poses significant local prioritization challenges. The main goal of the PriCare project is to develop knowledge and insight into how health and care services in Norwegian municipalities are designed. The project will specifically examine dilemmas and prioritization challenges and the consequences of such challenges for health and care services. The analyses will be based on registry data, questionnaires to Norwegian municipalities, and case studies that combine observations, document analysis, and interviews with politicians, healthcare professionals, service users, and their relatives. The results will contribute to discussions about the impact of changes on fundamental values in our welfare state: justice, equality, and universal accessibility. An overarching goal of the project is to develop theoretical and methodological approaches that form the basis for continuous analyses of trends in municipal health and care services. Strong user involvement will be a key element throughout all phases and parts of the project.

Publications in the project

Rostad, Hanne Marie; Skinner, Marianne Sundlisæter; Hellesø, Ragnhild; Sogstad, Maren Kristine Raknes (2020) Towards specialised and differentiated long-term care services: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, Vol. 20, doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05647-y

Sogstad, Maren Kristine Raknes; Hellesø, Ragnhild; Skinner, Marianne Sundlisæter (2020) The Development of a New Care Service Landscape in Norway. Health Services Insights (HSI Journal), Vol. 13, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1178632920922221

Ervik, Rune; Lindén, Tord Skogedal (2020) Consequences of prioritisation within long-term care in Denmark, England and Norway: towards increasing inequalities and poorer quality of care? International Journal of Care and Caring, p. 1-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1332/239788220X16025229321691

Ervik, Rune (2019) Policy Responses to Aging: Care Services for the Elderly in Norway. In: Tian-kui Jing, Stein Kuhnle, Yi Pan and Sheying Chen. Aging Welfare and Social Policy: China and the Nordic Countries in Comparative Perspective. Springer, p. 105-124, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10895-3_7

Gautun, Heidi (2018) Priorities in the Care and Welfare Sector: Are the Elderly Discriminated Against? Tidsskrift for omsorgsforskning, Vol. 4 (2), p. 107-110, doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5984-2018-02-04

Førland, Oddvar (2018) Indispensable Prioritization. Tidsskrift for omsorgsforskning, commentary, Vol. 4 (2), p. 95-98, doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5984-2018-02-01

Hellesø, Ragnhild (2018) Who Must Go? Tidsskrift for omsorgsforskning, interview, Vol. 4 (2), doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2387-5984-2018-02-02

Fagertun, Anette (2017) The Anti-Politics of Healthcare and Its Blurring Effects on Care Work in Norway. International Practice Development Journal, Vol. 7, doi: https://doi.org/10.19043/ipdj.7SP.002

Contact Person:

Maren Sogstad, Associate Professor

Centre for Care Research, East

Phone: 934 87 706

Email: maren.sogstad@ntnu.no

Funding:

The Research Council of Norway, 2017 – 2021