The Government asks hospitals and municipalities to update health emergency preparedness plans

News story | Date: 21/05/2026 | Ministry of Health and Care Services, Ministry of Defence

The Government is instructing the regional health authorities to review updated emergency preparedness plans in the health and care sector together with the municipalities. The plans must be strengthened in order to handle war and war-like situations. They must be based on a requirement to make 7,000 beds available for war casualties - both civilian and military.

'In a more unsettled world, our shared health service must also be better prepared. That is why today we are asking hospitals and municipalities to strengthen their health emergency preparedness plans. This is about ensuring security both for people's health and for the country,' says Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre.

Making Norway more resilient and strengthening preparedness is one of the main priorities in the Government's plan for Norway.

'We are living in a time when the challenge landscape is more serious than it has been for several decades. Although it is not considered likely that war will affect Norway in the near future, the health sector must also have preparedness plans to deal with war and situations at the top end of the crisis spectrum. This includes a plan to prioritise beds for patients injured in war,' says Minister of Defence Tore O. Sandvik.

Bed capacity

In a wartime situation, the health services are to support the Armed Forces and the total defence. Hospitals and municipalities have expressed a need for clarification of what is expected of them in such a situation. The Committee for Civil-Military Preparedness Work has therefore assessed an estimate of the total need for bed capacity, which implies an expectation that the health services must be prepared to make 7,000 beds available for war casualties - both civilian and military.

'We are now asking both hospitals and municipalities to use this figure as a basis for their further emergency preparedness planning. The figure of 7,000 is an estimate based on a number of assumptions and existing contingency plans, and must therefore be treated with caution. The actual need for bed capacity in

a given situation will depend on the specific circumstances. However, the estimate gives our services a quantified expectation on which they can plan,' says Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre.

The distribution of beds for each health trust has not been determined.

'These are beds that are to be available in wartime. They will not be physically in place and operational in peacetime, but we need to have a plan for how the health services will adapt and mobilise these resources when they are needed. In peacetime, our sha

red health service must continue to prioritise resources so that people in Norway receive high-quality health services when they need them,' says Vestre.

Responsibility for emergency preparedness planning is part of the overall remit of both municipalities and hospitals, and must be viewed in the context of the sector's other tasks and priorities. These are therefore tasks that must be carried out within the ordinary budgetary framework.

Blood preparedness

Both in normal situations and in crises and war, we depend on safe and sufficient access to blo

od. The Ministry of Health and Care Services has therefore asked the Norwegian Medical Products Agency to examine exemption provisions in the blood regulations in order to ensure sufficient preparedness in crises and war.

'The blood supply is a fundamental part of our health preparedness, and we continuously assess measures that can strengthen both safety and availability in blood banks. I am therefore asking the regional health authorities to present, by November 1st, a plan for the introduction of nucleic acid testing (NAT testing) in blood banks,' says Vestre.

NAT testing in blood bank

s will contribute to harmonised testing in Europe and is in line with NATO standards for meeting blood preparedness requirements. Such testing could strengthen access to blood by reducing the window period for detecting infectious diseases, and help increase safety for recipients of blood products.

This is the assignment given to the regional health authorities

• The health service must be prepared to make 7,000 beds available for war casualties - both civilian and military.
• Assist the Armed Forces in ensuring that specialist health service personnel who are part of the forces are, as a general rule, used for medical services and not for other roles.
• Ensure the necessary expertise in the treatment of war injuries in cooperation with the Armed Forces.
• Cooperate with the Norwegian Directorate of Health and other relevant actors to develop plans for medical evacuation based on the national emergency preparedness system and the work on the long-term plan for civil preparedness.
• Cooperate with the Norwegian Directorate of Health to assess measures necessary to maintain prioritised hospital operations in wartime situations.
• Cooperate with County Governors on the co-ordination, prioritisation and distribution of patients in a wartime situation in Norway.
• Present a joint plan for the introduction of NAT (nucleic acid testing) in blood banks by November 1st 2026, including to strengthen blood preparedness and contribute to harmonised infectious disease testing in the EU/EEA.