8 However, those cross-border institutional and economic agreements formed part of and depended on a wider political compromise between nationalism and unionism. In exchange for such an open border with the executive institutions for cross-border cooperation shared between Belfast and Dublin (strand 2) and in exchange for new power-sharing mediation institutions in Northern Ireland (strand 1), Dublin agreed to the revision of Articles 2 and 3 of its Constitution, expressly endorsing the principle of consent and abandoning its territorial claim to Northern Ireland. Instead, it recognised the island of Ireland as a common territory and the right of Northern Irish people to freely choose whether they wish to be Irish and/or British citizens. Such constitutional reform has long been a major demand of the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. Similarly, the scope and powers of these cross-border institutions were the subject of bitter negotiations between unionists and nationalists, the latter eventually having to accept the borders demanded by the former.6 At the same time, London and Dublin agreed that the status of Northern Ireland could not be changed as long as a majority in the north and south of Ireland accepted such a change in two simultaneous referenda. The current invisibility of the soft Irish border and the absence of border controls are therefore closely linked to the entire constitutional and institutional framework agreed in 1998. The United Kingdom and Ireland cooperate on health, including the mutual recognition of qualifications. The Northern Ireland branch of the British Medical Association warned that a hard border ”could endanger patient care”. [78] The CEO of Cooperation and Working Together, a body that organises cross-border health cooperation, proposed using the Norwegian model. [78] Along the border between Norway and Sweden and other northern borders, there is some cooperation for the collection of ambulances and helicopters, as well as for maternity wards and a few others, but apart from that, health care is separate. Owen Reidy (Deputy Secretary General) said on 17 August a reason for this: ”It is obvious that any form of east/west border within the UK is unacceptable and creates problems for unionism.