At the staff meeting, Zoega explained that Landspitali needs to cut back by ISK 850 million (USD 7.5 million) next year to comply with the across-the-board cut of 4.8 percent to the whole healthcare system.

Zoega said that next year will probably be the last year that the state cuts back on services in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. It seems likely that 70-100 full-time positions will be lost. The hospital plans to limit the number of employees laid off by reducing some employees’ hours, freezing wages, reducing overtime and bringing in fewer outside contractors to deal with things like summer holidays and maternity leave.

The hospital also plans to reorganise its outpatients’ wards, reduce the number of beds still further and spend less overall on medicine and other consumables, RUV reports.

Other cutbacks will come from printing costs, magazine and newspaper subscriptions for the hospital library, the purchase of overseas research expertise and the sending of employees overseas for study. The hospital will also improve its system for chasing money it is owed from outside.

According to Bjorn Zoega, all this is being done to minimise job losses and to keep all essential services intact.

The budget of Landspitali this year is around ISK 3.4 billion – which is itself a lot lower than previous years. Currently 4,600 people work in the hospital; which is 600 fewer than January 2009. Strangely, according to a staff satisfaction survey carried out in October, it appears that Landspitali workers are now happier in their jobs than before.

The head of Landspitali, Bjorn Zoega, told RUV that heart patients may need to be treated overseas if the situation does not improve soon.

Zoega added that if the intense pressure on the hospital is maintained, there will come a breaking point eventually. No services at the hospital have been discontinued in recent years – although a lot has been changed, re-organised and scaled back. The next step could have to be the closure of some departments, which would mean sending some patients to other countries for treatment. The state would not save any money if that happened, Zoega said.

Head of the planning board, Gudrun Agustsdottir announced that a group of designers calling themselves SPITAL (the Icelandic for hospital is ‘spitali’) had won the competition, mbl.is reports.

The judges concluded that their design does a good job in achieving its goals to bring an urban community feel with many different aspects in harmony. It was also noted that the design cleverly allows for future developments and is economical.

The design incorporates the ornate old hospital building currently on the site as a central feature and the new hospital will spring up around it, without making it redundant. One of the key ideas behind the new hospital is to unite the current Hringbraut site with other hospital services currently taken care of at Fossvogur, a couple of kilometres away.

More details on the winning design for Reykjavik’s new hospital can be seen on the Landspitali website.

This mbl news report also shows the new design in detail.

The man was described as being in a strange mental situation and under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

If his choice of crash site was deliberate, it did not work. He was arrested on site and taken to a police cell where the reason for his crash did not become clear.

Despite breaking the big window and stopping his car in the department’s waiting room, nobody was hurt, Visir.is reports.

The statement calls for the construction to be financed by the pension funds and for the government to then rent the premises. Work will begin in 2010 for architects and engineers involved in designing and preparing the project; but the vast majority of jobs created will come in 2013-2015 when construction is in full swing.

The projected total construction cost is around ISK 33 billion (USD 264.6 million). The figure includes ISK 7 billion for various hospital equipment and ISK 11 billion for redesign and rebuilding of old hospital premises. The new hospital will cover some 66,000 square metres in three main sites.