Anna Wangenheim: Sana must be a university hospital

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

Hardly one goes day without citizens sharing their frustrations with the healthcare system Facebook.

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

Hardly one goes day without citizens sharing their frustrations with the healthcare system 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 is the healthcare staff's collective agreement expired long ago, and the negotiations are not yet completed.

With the many points of criticism in the back of our minds, we meet Anna Wangenheim. We go for a walk around Queen Ingrid's Hospital, which is colloquially just called Sana. She is the new naalakkersuisoq for health and people with disabilities, and she knows that many are angry and worried.

- I receive inquiries via Messenger and Facebook all the time. Getting tagged all the time. It is a bit difficult for me to distance myself, as I myself am consumed by them.

- I have also heard people say that the healthcare system is the house of death. It's violent to hear, but it shows how people experience the system, she says.

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

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

Queen Ingrid's Hospital as university hospital

A concrete place to start, she says, is Queen Ingrid's Hospital. She hopes it can turn into one university hospital. Maybe already next year.

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

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

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

- It could give us access to financing from the outside. And we lack money, she says.

New focus on disability area

Anna Wangenheim has got a new responsibility – to work with people with disabilities. It's the first time Greenland has a special department for it, and in fact it is new throughout The North.

Although the municipalities too has responsibility for the area, she thinks it is important to focus attention on 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 new ways.  She also thinks we should use the chance 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 proposes to example to collaborate with foundations or sponsors outside who can help with things like equipment or home adaptations for people with disabilities.

- If it burdens the municipalities' budgets too much, we have to find other ways to do it on, 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.