Patients should normally have received treatment or have started treatment within 60 days

‘The Government wants to provide security for people's health (trygghet for helsa) by building a strong health service for the future and reducing waiting times. Through Ventetidsløftet ("the Waiting Time Pledge"), we have significantly reduced waiting times in hospitals. At the same time, we have greater ambitions. We are now setting a target that patients should normally have received treatment or have started treatment within 60 days from the date they are referred,’ said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

The work carried out through Ventetidsløftet (“the Waiting Time Pledge partnership”) has resulted in the average waiting time from referral to the start of healthcare now being the shortest in five years. The number of people waiting has been reduced by around 59,000 patients since Ventetidsløftet began.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre presented the new waiting time target at Akershus University Hospital on 19 June.

‘In Norway, we have health and care services of world-class quality. We must therefore ensure that all patients receive help within a reasonable time and do not wait too long. Ventetidsløftet has produced very good results, and with the new waiting time target we are now taking the next major steps. I would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by health personnel to provide good and prompt treatment. When we reach the new target of treatment within 60 days, it will mark a before and after for Norwegian patients,’ said Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre.

This is new:

1. Patients should normally have received treatment or have started treatment within 60 days from the date the referral is received, unless there are medical reasons why treatment should wait or the patient has chosen to postpone treatment. Today, the average waiting time for treatment is around five and a half months for the treatments currently included in this indicator. The new target is to be reached over time, but hospitals are to begin work immediately to meet the target, and a marked reduction in waiting times is expected going forward.
2. Through the new Mitt sykehusvalg solution, patients will more easily be able to choose where they are treated between public hospitals and not-for-profit and private hospitals that have agreements with the public sector. Most treatments will be included in the service, and patients will be able to choose their place of treatment with just a few clicks. Today, few treatments are included in this solution, the waiting times stated are not always up to date, and patients themselves must contact the hospital to which they have been referred and ask for the referral to be forwarded to the hospital they prefer. The solution will be expanded gradually, and work will begin immediately.
3. Patients will receive a direct appointment allocation through Rett på time. This means that, in the first letter from their chosen hospital patients will be informed of the time and place of their appointment. With this change, hospitals will have to offer patients the first available appointment, and it must be soon, instead of scheduling patients close to the deadline to avoid breaches of the treatment deadline, as is often the practice today. The change will be introduced in all health trusts from this autumn.
4. Patients will be able, easily and digitally, to change a scheduled appointment if the time is not suitable. Today, the practice is that patients themselves must telephone the hospital to ask whether there are other available appointments. The calendar function on the Helsenorge website (helsenorge.no/en) will be rolled out during 2026 and 2027.
5. Incentive schemes will be introduced whereby hospitals that carry out more treatments than usual will receive a bonus payment. Helse Vest RHF (The Western Norway Regional Health Authority) has already introduced such a scheme for increased surgical activity, under which hospitals receive approximately 40 per cent higher payment. The other regional health authorities will begin introducing similar schemes as early as this summer.

More options through “Mitt sykehusvalg”

The Government wants a health service that is accessible and adapted to people’s lives.

‘It will become easier to choose the hospital with the shortest waiting time and to gain a better overview of your own appointments through Mitt sykehusvalg. The Labour Party introduced the patient right Fritt sykehusvalg (“Free Hospital Choice”) back in 2001, and we are now launching the 2026 version so that patients are given a real opportunity to choose where they are treated, find up-to-date waiting times at different hospitals and treatment centres, and change their appointment digitally if the appointment is not suitable or if they want treatment elsewhere,’ said Vestre.

Work on updating and making visible waiting time figures for treatment, direct appointment allocation and the opportunity to choose place of treatment, are some of the measures now being launched to reduce waiting times.

‘Good cooperation between in the tripartite cooperation and increased productivity are prerequisites for reducing waiting times. Many hospitals have already made improvements in this area. We will intensify work on the division of responsibilities and tasks, better logistics and more efficient use of, among other things, operating theatre capacity. The regional health authorities will also enter into more long-term agreements with not-for-profit and private hospitals,’ said Vestre.

Facts

• See the facts page on waiting times (in Norwegian)

You can watch the press conference from 19 June again below (in Norwegian).