Indicator 1.16 - Public Services in Nearby Communities
This indicator is still being reviewed, as the Directorate of Health no longer performs health service surveys as they did when the Sustainability Initiative started. Results from surveys in 2003 and 2005 regarding services in East-Iceland healthcare institutions are available.
Furthermore, feedback from the community regarding public services in the area has not been sought, but Alcoa Fjardaál has included the following question in each of its community surveys since 2004: "Are you satisfied or unsatisfied with the services available in Mideast-Iceland?" For the public interest, the outcome of that part of the survey is published here. Capacent Gallup did the survey for Alcoa Fjardaál.
Performance
a) Survey regarding availability and quality of health care services in East Iceland
The Directorate of Health used to conducts survey in health care centers around Iceland every two or three years to collect information about the quality of services.
The table below shows the results from two questions in the survey. These results are calculated by adding answers from all health care centers in East Iceland, but they were not available broken down by individual health care centers.
Table 1: Survey of Health Care Services in East-Iceland in 2003 (all healthcare centers combined).
| Was your concern adequately addressed during your visit? | Were you happy with how your concern was addressed? | |
| Yes | 77.7% | 83.5% |
| Partly | 20.8% | 13.5% |
| No | 1.5% | 3.1% |
Table 2: Survey of Health Care Services in East-Iceland in 2005 (all healthcare centers combined).
| Was your concern adequately addressed during your visit? | Were you happy with how your concern was addressed? | |
| Yes | 80.3% | 80.6% |
| Partly | 16.8% | 17.5% |
| No | 2.9% | 1.9% |
b. A service survey has not been performed among the residents on their assessment of public services. However, Alcoa Fjardaál has included the following question in each of its community surveys since 2004: "Are you satisfied or unsatisfied with the services available in Mideast-Iceland?" The outcome of these surveys is shown in the image below.
Development (Þróun). Very satisfied (mjög ánægður), rather satisfied (frekar ánægður), neutral (hvorki né), rather dissatisfied (frekar óánægður) and very dissatisfied (mjög óánægður)
The image shows the development in residents' satisfaction with the services in Mideast-Iceland. It shows that the ratio of satisfied people has gone down from 70% in 2007 to 58.6% in 2010. It is worth mentioning that the last survey was made in November 2010, and during that year the government cut drastically the budget for hospitals outside the capital area. The heated discussions may have had an effect on the outcome.
Metrics, Targets and Monitoring Protocol
Metrics: What is measured?
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Survey regarding availability and quality of health care services in East Iceland. (Project effect: induced).
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Satisfaction with public services in local municipalities.
Targets
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Results remain stable or improve.
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To be determined in cooperation with municipalities once results from first survey are available.
Monitoring Protocol
a) The Directorate of Health conducts surveys in health care centers around Iceland every year in all health care centers and hospitals. Results from the last question (question 16 e) will be used: “Overall, how happy or unhappy are you with the service in this health care center?” Information will be collected every year.
b) Questionnaire will be made in cooperation with Capacent (formerly Gallup).
Rationale for Indicator Selection
The Karahnjukar and Fjardaal projects could possibly influence the demand for services provided by the national government and municipalities in East Iceland.
The increased number of people living in local communities during both the construction and operational phases of the projects will increase demand for various services such as health care, waste management, schools, and day care.
The increase in population will be both a direct effect of employees and contractors, as well as an indirect effect of people moving to the area in association with businesses providing goods and services to the projects.
Access to health care and the quality of the service is an example of services that need to keep pace with the increase in population.
