When Melvin Samsom was recruited to Karolinska was the vision of a high-tech hospital, which would also be världsomtalad pioneer in the new concept of value-based care – a completely new way to engage in care. But as the director he got the deal with a long series of major crises: the technical breakdowns, the criticized the move and the reorganization that was made according to the new concept. In the fall he gave in his resignation after DN revealed that several of the Samsoms Dutch ex-colleagues were contracted for 55,000 kronor per day as consultants at the Karolinska.
to even a new futuristic project: Neom. It is about a new, saudi mega city – 33 times larger than New York city – as envisaged in the country’s northwestern part. According to a promotional film, the project shall lead humanity forward through innovation in all areas. Samsom is then in February of this year the director of health and well-being in Neom, according to his own Linkedin.
And he is not alone. One of the top managers at the New Karolinska, wrote in an email to staff at the hospital in march, he received a new mission:
”I have accepted the offer to lead the work to develop the infrastructure within the Sector Health and Well-being in the Neom project in saudi Arabia. An incredibly ambitious and visionary project that aims to create a completely new society for a new way to live in the future”, is called it in the e-mail where he also says that he leaves the Karolinska in may.
” he says that he accomplished the mission he came to Karolinska.
” I have chosen to leave the Karolinska. I’m extremely satisfied and happy over all the years and all the fun I’ve got to do. I am also you can read that it has gone so well. I have received an exciting offer and I have accepted.
But his new job in saudi jätteprojektet he is secretive about.
” It’s a really interesting project. It can be said. You can get information about the project on Youtube or other places, and you can see in which country it is and you can have a lot of doubts that country. It can be seen that what this project wants to do is to make a total reformation, something completely different, which is amazing that they have initiated.
” I declare myself happy if I made at the Karolinska, where I made a fantastic, exciting job. But since I now do not go to a outdoor activity, so it is my private affair.
” My job at the hospital was to deploy NKS, I have not worked with value-based health care at the Karolinska, and it is not there I will be working with.
– Now we’re talking about what I will do. I would rather not speak about it.
Melvin Samsom is thus the director in the same project. The high Karolinskachefen do not want to confirm whether it is through the former master kai fa he got the job. He speaks in general.
– It is always good to work with people that you know.
the Project, which is estimated to cost close to 5000 billion, has been founded by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is described as the regime’s real leader. With the project to saudi Arabia to take great strides to modernise itself and when it was presented 2015 highlighted the values which are normally associated with the west: equality, ecological sustainability and technological innovation, as DN previously told.
is the same crown prince that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi criticised, before he was killed at the saudi consulate in Turkey. Both documents from the CIA, as a report from the united nations, linking the crown prince and the saudi regime to the deed. Since the murder, several investors and a number of international advisers in the project dropped out of the Neom project.
One of them, as is countryman to Samsom, the EUROPEAN commission vice president Neelie Kroes, stated to The Wall Street Journal that she pushes up its commitment ”until more is known” about what happened.
in Order to establish the project’s reputation after the murder have recently pr firm KARV been engaged for just over 1 million in the month of the saudi investment fund to attract back investors to the project, view the documents from the us department of justice. Pr firm Gladstone Place Partners, which previously was associated to the Neom jumped according to the magazine PR Week because of suspicions that the murder could be linked to the saudi royal family.
the DN has earlier stated that the Swedish government has been involved in launching the concept of value-based healthcare in saudi Arabia. Last year, Sweden was visited by a delegation headed by saudi minister of health. The saudi government has also, in its vision for the development of the country’s health care, which aims to establish value-based care.
and human rights at Amnesty International, notes that the Amnesty long ago documented serious violations of human rights in saudi Arabia. She enumerates a long list: Repeated folkrätts and war crimes committed by the saudiledda the coalition during the war in the Yemen. Non-existent freedom of expression. The exploitation of migrant workers and forced labour. Peaceful activists are often imprisoned – as in last year, when several leading women human rights defenders were arrested in a crackdown on människorättssamhället. And the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi arabia is also one of the countries which executes the most people.
– If you venture out to work in a project of this kind must, as an individual, feel where your ethical compass is. How do you get to work in a consortium and a project for a regime that is committing systematic and extremely serious violations of human rights? How big you think the chances are that you yourself can change? You must also make a careful assessment of the risks. Has the consortium or the project carried out an impact assessment in relation to human rights? The risk of complicity or aiding and abetting violations of human rights are present in the equation.
Sandberg reacts to the name, Neom, which stands for ”New future”.
– How is this the future? We have seen in large construction projects in the region of how migrant workers are exploited, taken away their passports and be denied the freedom to leave if they have not received the so-called exit permits from the employer. It asks directly the question of how labour law within the Neom project. And will the violations of human rights continue in this new world?
or at Karolinskas communications departments say they have any current contact information for Melvin Samsom, DN instead searched via Neoms press office, his own Linkedin, and his maintaining the board’s membership in the Netherlands.
the DN has also sought representatives of Neom.
