Ethics

There are many laws and regulations that have an impact on the ethical values and norms in our business. All employees must follow the laws, regulations, and guidelines that apply at any given time, regardless of department, position, or function, and have a duty to be aware of, understand, and comply with the laws that may affect their individual work tasks.

Laws, instructions, and regulations can never alone guarantee a high ethical standard. Employees must themselves set the standard by directing attention to the ethical aspects of their actions. This means that each individual must continuously and critically assess their own interests and engagement in relation to ethical conflict situations.

All employees in the Southern Norway health region and all who act on behalf of Helse Sør-Øst, must act in accordance with general ethical norms and applicable legislation. Ethical guidelines in Helse Sør-Øst are a clarification of this general ethics.
Guidelines regarding the healthcare enterprises' relationship with gifts, foundations, and grants, should be a tool to ensure the enterprise's duty of due diligence and investigation as required by regulations and the enterprise's role as a public service provider.

Helse Sør-Øst should be a driver for both environmental requirements and ethical trade. This is clarified through ethical guidelines for procurement and supplier contact, which were adopted by the board on December 10, 2009, and implemented in the corporate group in the spring of 2010. Helse Sør-Øst wants to use its purchasing power to strengthen work on good environmental requirements and requirements for ethical supply chains in public procurement.

All employees in the Southern Norway health region and all who act on behalf of Helse Sør-Øst, must act in accordance with good business practice, applicable legislation, and general ethical norms. This is to contribute to increased value creation in society by ensuring the most efficient use of resources in public procurement. The guidelines should help ensure that the public has confidence that public procurement takes place in a socially beneficial manner. These ethical guidelines cover Helse Sør-Øst's relationship with suppliers and Helse Sør-Øst's responsibility as a major purchaser of goods and services.

The regional healthcare enterprises have entered into cooperation agreements with the Pharmaceutical Industry (LMI) and Suppliers for Health Norway (LFH). The agreements ensure that the cooperation takes place in a professionally and ethically correct manner.

Relevant documents and brochures on ethics can be downloaded fromHelse Sør-Øst RHFs website.