Stavanger University Hospital estimates that by ceasing to wash windows that cannot be reached easily from the ground level, it will save some 200,000 kroner per year ($25,000) by not needing to hire a crane.
“It says something about the tough priorities when it comes to spending," Emma Husabø Manin, head of internal services at the hospital, told the local Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper. "Cleaning the windows our own staff cannot reach is not a priority this year.”
Despite its 4.7bn kroner annual budget, the hospital has been facing severe financial problems recently, with patients placed in the corridors because of a shortage of hospital beds.
The hospital crisis in Stavanger is so serious that it was raised in a debate in Norway's national parliament, the Storting, on Monday.
Earlier this month, the Norwegian Nurses Organisation warned that the hospital was in danger of failing to provide an acceptable standard of care.
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