The Svalbard group’s member states and their authorities have collaborated in different projects that develop Nordic preparedness in social and health care.
Nordic Mass Burn Casualty Incident Response Plan
Nordic Mass Burn Casualty Incident Response Plan describes the outline and practical details of a joint Nordic mass burn casualty incident (MBCI) and its response mechanism. This plan is the result of a conjoined effort by the national burn centers in Bergen, Norway; Linköping and Uppsala, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Copenhagen, Denmark, and the health authorities
in the Nordic countries.
The Nordic Mass Burn Casualty Agreement was finalized in 2018 as a result of a cooperative work of all the Nordic countries under the leadership of Norway. It was introduced to the Nordic Council of Ministers in Reykjavik in March 2019.
The response mechanism is based on existing national response mechanisms and ones being developed in the participating countries, and the on-going work to establish a European MBCI response mechanism. The main outline is based on the suggested medical standards from the European Burns Association (EBA) in this regard.
The plan is focused on an MBCI situation where the affected country is overwhelmed, but where the situation is still manageable within our Nordic regional capacity. Our countries have a long history of mutual help and development in burn care, and a regional MBCI plan is a natural extension of this. Our countries have experiences with the same challenges of scattered settlements and long
distances and seem well prepared for joint responses in these circumstances. The outline of this plan is made to be in line with national response mechanisms in our countries and with the European mechanism under way, thus being a natural step in this response ladder.
Nordic Mass Burn Casualty Incident Response Plan
Nordic Mechanism for Sharing Situation Awareness in Health and Social care
The project “Nordic mechanism for sharing situation awareness in health and social care” is building on the experiences and practices formed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nordic countries’ national responses have highlighted some needs that we need to strengthen with Nordic co-operation in order to be better prepared for future disturbances. The aim of the project is to develop a common framework and process for gathering and sharing situation awareness related data and notifications for health and social services in the Nordics.
Seamless Nordic cross-border cooperation on health, in severe accidents and crisis
The project “Seamless Nordic cross-border cooperation on health, in severe accidents and crisis”, was initiated by the Svalbard Group and received funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project ran from 2023 until June 2025. The project was led by Norway and had participants from national health authorities of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Island and Norway.
The primary focus of the project was to identify legislative issues that could prevent or delay cross-border healthcare assistance between the Nordic countries through mapping. Other aims were to describe existing mechanisms and capacities for Nordic cross-border assistance and explore exercises to enhance cooperation.
The project mapped legislation in the Nordic countries based on relevant scenarios, as for instance use of healthcare personnel and ambulance driving in another Nordic country. The high-level finding was that relevant legislation in the Nordic countries does not fully take into account the need for cross-border healthcare assistance and this may complicate cooperation.
The project’s final report has been reviewed and approved by the Svalbard Group. Key findings from the project and the assessment of potential further follow-up will be discussed in EK-S in November 2025.
Nordic Mass Casualty Preparedness Project
The Nordic Mass Casualty Response Plan and the Nordic Mass Casualty Strategic Cooperation Framework describe the framework and practical details of Nordic coordination during a mass casualty incident in the Nordic region. The plan is the result of collaboration between the national health authorities of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The project was financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers and led by Sweden as part of the Swedish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2024.
The Nordic Mass Casualty Response Plan outlines the stepwise procedures for how Nordic response coordination is carried out, defining who does what, when, and how, during a mass casualty incident. It is structured around the three main phases of coordination: activation, response, and recovery, and includes routine descriptions and supporting documents for each phase.
The plan builds upon existing national cooperation and formalises routines for mutual support within the Nordic region. It defines a common coordination process using existing resources, with particular focus on requests for and offers of assistance during mass casualty events. The plan establishes a shared operational framework for duty officers and other relevant personnel, such as National Patient Evacuation Coordination Cells (N-PECC), and draws on experience from the Nordic Burn Mechanism. It also connects with EU mechanisms to further strengthen coordination and resource sharing across borders when national capacities are exceeded.
Nordic-Baltic EMS Network
The Nordic-Baltic EMS Network is focused on delivering comparative data for mutual development and benchmarking of the Emergency Medical Services in partaking countries. Previously there has been three separate projects that have published reports focusing on Nordic-Baltic EMS Quality and Benchmarking Indicators and other measures to enhance the comparability and interoperability of the EMS systems on a systemic level.
Currently the Network is committed to continuously updating the most recent report published in 2025. The Nordic-Baltic EMS Report is designed to serve as the baseline for creating understanding and comparability within the region’s EMS systems. Updating the Nordic-Baltic EMS Quality and Benchmarking Indicators annually with most recent data available, adding more indicators as the national systems are developed to be more and more capable of aggregating comparative data especially on patients and exploring new thematic areas where regional collaboration is beneficial are the main tasks of the Network.
The Nordic-Baltic EMS Report can be accessed as an online publication and downloadable as .pdf through the link below. Previous reports (2018 and 2021) are available in the online publication in chapter 7 Attachments.
Nordic and Baltic EMS data, quality indicators and benchmarking