Opposition questions need for new digital health agency
Thursday 5th November 2026 on 19:15 in
Iceland
Opposition lawmakers have questioned the need for a new state agency for digital health, after Health Minister Alma D. Möller presented a bill to Parliament, mbl.is reports.
The bill would turn Digital Health, currently an office within the Ministry of Health, into an independent state agency from January 1, 2029. The cost of establishing it is not yet known.
Digital Health began operating at the start of this year and has taken over responsibilities from the Directorate of Health and Landspítali, Iceland’s national university hospital. More tasks are expected to be transferred. The minister said the office has just over 60 employees and received budget allocations of 1.06 billion Icelandic krónur along with the transferred responsibilities. She said staffing had not increased, as employees had moved from other institutions.
Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir, leader of the Independence Party, said the bill ran counter to the government’s policy. She noted that the coalition agreement prioritises merging institutions and that a government efficiency group had called for their number to be reduced.
“Which institution will be closed in its place?” Guðrún asked in Parliament, adding that the bill would create a new agency without closing the Directorate of Health, Landspítali or primary healthcare services.
Her party colleague Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir also questioned why new technology required a new state agency, calling it an expansion of the state bureaucracy.
Guðrún said the proposed agency could both develop its own digital solutions and assess whether companies’ products could connect to healthcare infrastructure. She argued that this created a conflict of interest, because companies might need approval from an agency developing similar solutions.
She also criticised a provision that would allow the minister to require healthcare institutions and independent healthcare professionals to use specified systems through regulations. Guðrún asked what safeguards would prevent other suitable solutions from being excluded.
She added that Digital Health’s framework agreement would not cover purchases of ready-made solutions, meaning entrepreneurs could offer their staff but not sell their own products.