Now we must stand up for shelters at Mjøs Hospital
Debate: Trond Brønstad, Head of Department NITO Innlandet West. The article was published in Oppland Arbeiderblad on Friday 3 July.
In the proposal for new regulations on places of refuge, which the Ministry of Justice and Public Security recently sent out for consultation, the requirement for shelters in new buildings over 1000 square meters has been removed. Instead, the Government proposes that the need should be assessed to a greater extent on a case-by-case basis, for example on the basis of municipal plans and existing protection options.
This is contrary to the Government's own signals in last year's white paper on total preparedness. There, the government asked the Storting to lift the construction ban on shelters and introduce an obligation to build shelters in new buildings.
No new shelters have been built in Norway since 1998, and we are far behind our Nordic neighbors when it comes to shelters for the population.
As one of the country's largest trade unions, NITO is concerned with protecting workers who have to be at work even in war and crisis, not least in health. We have therefore worked actively to get shelters in place in the future Mjøs Hospital.
It was therefore a victory when the Health and Care Committee submitted its recommendation on the matter in April. The Storting asked the Government to consider whether new hospitals that are to be planned, or that have not yet been fully designed, should be ensured the necessary protective facilities – and if so, how this can be implemented. Mjøs Hospital was highlighted as a concrete example of a development project that needs a quick clarification if shelters are to be relevant. Now that the planning of Mjøs Hospital is moving forward, it is urgent to get this clarification in place. If the issue is not resolved now, the possibility may be significantly more difficult to realise later in the project.
The regulations that are now being circulated for consultation once again create uncertainty as to whether Mjøs Hospital and other new health buildings will actually have shelters. It is a paradox.
In the consultation document, the Ministry itself uses hospitals as an example of enterprises that may be required to build shelters: critical, location-bound enterprises with personnel who must be physically present to keep operations going in war. Hospitals thus meet all three criteria used by the Ministry. Critical function in society, location, and location-bound personnel.
Nevertheless, the consultation proposal does not introduce any building obligation. The only thing that is proposed is that the responsible ministry should assess the needs of the individual enterprise. Any obligation has been postponed to a later phase. Thus, projects such as Mjøssykehuset lack the predictability that is necessary when such important emergency preparedness measures are to be incorporated into the planning.
This is not good enough.
When a project such as Mjøs Hospital obviously meets all the criteria set by the authorities themselves, it must also trigger a clear duty and a requirement.
