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Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Tuesday

Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett - [email protected]
Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Tuesday
Renewed blockades by truck drivers are reported in Denmark on Tuesday after Monday's protests, pictured here. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

More truck blockades, senior medics go public in hospital scandal and agency to change rule for work permit applications. Here are the news stories from Denmark on Tuesday.

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Truck blockades continue 

Yesterday’s demonstrations by truck drivers in which intermittent blockades were set up on roads across the country are again ongoing this morning.

The protests appear more limited in scope than yesterday at the time of writing. Drivers have blocked a road at Folehaven in the Valby suburb of Copenhagen, cutting off an access point into the city.

“Expect longer journey times,” Copenhagen police tweeted.

Truck protests have also been reported in North Jutland near the town of Støvring south of Aalborg, but these are not blocking traffic according to police.

The truck drivers are protesting plans to introduce a kilometre-based road tax on heavy goods vehicles.

Vocabulary: vejafgift – road tax

READ ALSO: Danish truck drivers' union to meet ministers after national protests

Senior doctors criticise leadership at hospital after waiting times scandal

Three senior consultant physicians at Aarhus University Hospital have publicly criticised leadership at the hospital as the fallout from a scandal over waiting times for stomach cancer patients continues.

Two directors from the hospital were fired and a national action plan put in place by the government after it emerged that patients had been made to wait longer than health service rules allow for operations after receiving their diagnosis, and had not been offered treatment at alternative hospitals in some cases.

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In a letter published by newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the three doctors, who are attached to the Aarhus University Hospital cancer department, say that the medical director of the department gave illegal orders to medics and that management gave incorrect information to authorities when the issue was scrutinised.

The hospital told news wire Ritzau that the illegal orders relate to patients not all being offered a certain type of operation, and have already been made public through inquiries into the matter.

Vocabulary: ledelse – management

READ ALSO: 'No quick fix’ for Danish cancer waiting lists: health minister

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WHO to move Moscow department to Copenhagen

The World Health Organization's European office has decided to close a specialised WHO office in Moscow and move its functions to Denmark, news wire AFP reports.

The move follows calls from members last year to shut the office over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The decision was made after a group of 30 member states requested a special session in a letter in April, which noted that the "immediate and long-term health impacts in Ukraine and beyond" caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine "continue to be a matter of utmost concern".

A majority of member states agreed to the decision, which means the closure of the health body's "Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases," in Moscow, with its functions to be relocated to the regional office in Copenhagen "no later than" January 1st 2024.

The move does not include the WHO's country office for Russia.

Vocabulary: kontor – office

Agency accepts work permit applications from people without passports

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) is changing its online application form for the Labour Market Attachment scheme to allow people without valid passports to apply, following criticism from the country's parliamentary ombudsman.

In March, the parliamentary ombudsman asked the agency to change its form to allow people without passports to apply, which the agency has now agreed to do. 

According to the press release, SIRI has said that the online form will change at some point between the end of May and the beginning of June this year. 

Vocabulary: ansøgningsskema – application form

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