Budget Cuts Leave Landspítali Staff Without Easter Eggs

Earlier this week, mbl.is reported that Landspítali employees would not receive Easter eggs from the hospital this year.

Landspítali, Iceland’s largest employer, with over 6,000 staff, traditionally gave chocolate Easter eggs to employees in the lead-up to the holiday, usually size 4.

According to information from Landspítali, this was one of the measures taken to meet the government’s 3-4 billion ISK budget cut requirement for the hospital. The decision sparked lively discussion among staff, coming just weeks after another controversial measure when Icelandic butter Smjörvi was substituted with Italian Bertolli.

Ragnar Freyr Ingvarsson, who works both as an independent physician and at Landspítali, questioned the hospital’s priorities after the decision not to give staff Easter eggs. At the same time, employees at the Ministry of Health received Easter eggs, and a minister had gifted “luxury eggs” to fellow ministers.

In a Facebook post, Ragnar Freyr referred to the hospital magazine Spítalapúls (which is in fact only published digitally), sarcastically wondering whether the “Great Easter Egg Shortage” would be covered in the next edition. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense to cut a few pages there and splash out on a few Easter eggs?” he asked, adding: “What a set of priorities!”

Another physician, Kristín Huld Haraldsdóttir, added, “A lot of people at Landspítali work in low-paid jobs — young people with children, groups for whom receiving an egg makes a difference. For many, it would be a welcome boost. Freyja eggs are even cheaper than many others. Yet at the Ministry of Health, there was an Easter egg hunt for staff today — not Freyja eggs, but Nói Síríus. The chocolate is unevenly distributed across public institutions! Unbelievable, to say the least.”

Góa and Omnom come to the rescue

After the news appeared in the media, Ragnar Freyr received a call from representatives of the chocolate companies Góa and Omnom. “They just called to say that Góa will make 5,000 chocolate eggs and Omnom another 1,000. They plan to produce them specifically for the hospital staff because the stock is empty and production has been halted this year,” Ragnar said.