Västernorrland County Council

The County Council is the elected body of the people of Västernorrland. This means that elected political representatives set guidelines for the work of the County Council and ensure that resources are divided between the different parts of the county.

The County Council Assembly with its 77 elected members is the highest decision-making body in the County Council. Members represent the public, and the Assembly meetings (five or six annually) are open to the public. Within the County Council Assembly there are three subcommittees whose commission is actively to follow up and spotlight activities, forming a link between the Assembly and the citizens of the county. The County Council Executive has 15 members and is divided into two sections – the medical and healthcare section and the personnel section.

The Regional Committee, which came into being at the beginning of 2007, comprises seven members and is the drafting and decision-making body of the County Council commissioned to fulfil County Council commitments and activities for favourable growth and development in the county and its business sector.

The tasks of the Patient and Ethics Committee include promoting contacts between patients and personnel in medical care, healthcare and dental care. The committee shall also focus on ongoing issues of ethics and priorities.

County Council activities are reviewed by nine appointed auditors. There are three County Council Commissioners, one of them representing the opposition parties. Most of the members of the County Council work with politics in their spare time.

County Council activities

The County Council vision is named Life and health in Västernorrland. There is a close link between good health and an active county. In its role as the county’s elected assembly, the County Council has a responsibility for the development of the county.

Management staff of the County Director

This is the central administration of the County Council, and works on strategic issues across all departments of the County Council. It drafts motions for the County Council Executive and the County Council Assembly.

Medical and healthcare

Medical and healthcare represents the biggest activity of the County Council, employing over 6,300. Most of the activities are at:

• Sundsvall-Härnösand County Hospital
• Sollefteå Hospital
• Örnsköldsvik Hospital
• Västernorrland Primary Care with responsibilities for the county’s health centres including family doctors, district nurse consulting rooms, maternity clinics, children’s clinics, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, etc. Some of the health centres are run on an entrepreneurial basis.
  Primary healthcare is also responsible for asylum seekers’ healthcare, standby primary healthcare and Österåsen Health Resort.
  Patients in need of highly specialised care are referred above all to Norrland University Hospital in Umeå. The County Hospital
  Is responsible for the county's ambulance service and has ten ambulance stations, five of them privately run. We also have County Council aural care, medical laboratory, Sterilservice Västernorrland, infectious disease control and the R&D centre, which is coordinator for research and development projects within all fields of activity of the County Council.

The National Dental Service

The County Council has 28 public dental clinics, which provide about
50 per cent of the adult dental care in the county, as well as free oral care to 96 % of the children and young people aged up to 19. The National Dental Service also has responsibility for specialist dental care in the county. There are four dental mechanics laboratories.

Regional development

Regional development comprises growth (arts and business), education, traffic, environment and international matters. The County Council is responsible for regional investments in the arts and for funding public education and associations in the county, as well as co-financing different projects.

Read more about International work and collaboration.

The County Council has overall responsibility for the county libraries and hospital libraries and together with Sundsvall Municipality owns a performing arts company which functions as a joint organisation for the county institutions for music, drama, dance, theatre and films.

The County Council grants aid to Västernorrland County Museum and has collaboration agreements with ALMI Företagspartner Västernorrland AB, Mitt Sverige Turism, Coompanion Kooperativ Utveckling Västernorrland, Västernorrlands Läns Trafik AB and Mid Sweden Office. The County Council also has cooperation projects with Mid-Sweden University in the fields of cultural heritage, the arts, culture and public health.There is furthermore a management function within regional development for County Council environmental work.

Länshälsan Västernorrland

Länshälsan is an organisation for preventive work environment initiatives and early rehabilitation. Länshälsan has offices in Härnösand, Sollefteå, Sundsvall and Örnsköldsvik.

Landstingsservice Västernorrland

Landstingsservice provides services all over the county, including medical service transportation, technical aids, kitchens/restaurants and cleaning/transport. Technical aids administration and its main storage depot are in Sundsvall, with buffer storage in Härnösand, Sollefteå and Örnsköldsvik. Kitchens/restaurants operates from Sundsvall, Härnösand, Örnsköldsvik and Sollefteå, while cleaning/transport has a base in every hospital in the county.

Landstingsservice Västernorrland is also a revenue-funded service organisation for the whole county within Västernorrland County Council. Ongoing operations include IT (operating, data communications, customer support and local support) accounting service, payroll service, consulting, telephony, internal training and medical technology.

Landstingsservice fastighetdrift works with the supply, new construction, rebuilding and extensions of premises. There is customer support at the County Council’s three hospitals as well as the organisation for operations and maintenance of properties and equipment for activities. 

Auditing

County Council Assembly auditors review all activities, principally to ensure that all Assembly decisions are implemented. The auditors are independent and decide themselves what is to be reviewed. The task of auditing includes assessing activities, the economy, the accounts and internal control as well as the objectives for good financial practices. In ensuring this process, the auditors shall promote work with economic management and control, but shall also propose improvements. In the annual auditors’ report, there is a presentation of how the board and committees have carried out the commission of the assembly. The County Council's auditors are assisted by a professional accountant from the County Council's own accounting office, but also hire other professional accountants.

Economy

The County Council’s total annual operating costs for the coming years are estimated at around 6,300 mSEK. Approximately 339 mSEK (2007) is annually earmarked for investments.

The County Council tax rate is 10.60 SEK per earned 100 SEK.
Other sources of revenue include state grants, sales and patients’ fees.

County Council personnel

With approx. 7700 employees, the County Council is one of the biggest employers in the county. 79 per cent of the employees work in medical and healthcare. 79 per cent of the employees are women.