Anna Wangenheim: Sana must be a university hospital

You can listen to the entire podcast at the bottom of the article.

Hardly a day goes by without citizens sharing their frustrations with the healthcare system on Facebook.

The criticisms are well-known: lack of staff, expensive temporary workers, too few funds and patients who are diagnosed far too late. At the same time, the collective agreement for healthcare workers has long expired, and negotiations have not yet been concluded.

With the many points of criticism in mind, we meet Anna Wangenheim. We take a walk around Queen Ingrid's Hospital, which is colloquially known as Sana. She is the new Greenlandic Minister for Health and People with Disabilities, and she knows that many are angry and worried.

- I get messages via Messenger and Facebook all the time. I get tagged all the time. It's a bit hard for me to distance myself, as I get absorbed in them myself.

"I've also heard people say that the health system is the house of death. It's shocking to hear, but it shows how people experience the system," she says.

Anna Wangenheim is a trained nurse and has worked in both Narsaq and Nuuk. She knows the reality from the inside, and she wants to help change the picture.

- We need to move away from that narrative and towards something that gives hope and strength. But we also need to be honest. It doesn't happen overnight. And we need to have a place to start.

Queen Ingrid's Hospital as a university hospital

A concrete place to start, she says, is Queen Ingrid's Hospital. She hopes it can become a university hospital. Maybe as early as next year.

It requires collaboration with a university, but her officials have already looked at the possibilities – and it looks realistic.

- When we collaborate with universities, we get access to more knowledge and more resources. It also commits us to development.

A university hospital can help change the negative image and perhaps attract more employees. It can also open the door to new funding.

"It could give us access to external financing. And we're short of money," she says.

New focus on the disability area

Anna Wangenheim has been given a new responsibility – working with people with disabilities. This is the first time that Greenland has a special department for this, and in fact it is new in the entire Nordic region.

Although the municipalities also have responsibility for the area, she thinks it is important to focus attention in one place.

- When we make it more visible, people understand it better, she says.

But visibility is not enough. There is a shortage of both people and skilled workers, and this requires us to think differently. She also thinks we should use the opportunity Greenland has right now, while the country is in the world's focus.

- We say it all the time: We lack money and manpower. So why not try something else?

She suggests, for example, collaborating with outside foundations or sponsors who can help with things like equipment or home adaptations for people with disabilities.

"If it puts too much of a strain on the municipalities' budgets, we have to find other ways to do it," she says.

You can hear the entire conversation with Anna Wangenheim in the podcast below. We went for a walk and talked about the healthcare system, her political ideas and the conditions for people with disabilities. The podcast is in Greenlandic.