The Christian Democrats' national council has adopted an updated healthcare policy. To make it easier to get healthcare, the party wants to see further investments in expanding primary healthcare.
One proposal is special emergency care centers that are open late into the evening. In order to get the regions to establish such care centers, Health Minister Elisabeth Lann (KD) may consider setting such requirements in order to receive government subsidies that go towards the ongoing expansion of primary care.
Emergency care centers could reduce pressure on hospital emergency departments. With this aim in mind, KD also proposes that there should be a nurse or doctor in the emergency department waiting room, to assess there whether the patient should go to the health center instead.
State responsibility
It is also proposed that health centers take over the 1177 telephone advice service and that it should be mandatory for them to offer video meetings.
Another KD proposal is that patients themselves should be able to search for available care capacity in the country through the national care agency that is being built up.
The party insists that the state must take over responsibility for healthcare from the regions to guarantee equal and accessible healthcare throughout the country.
There is no other feasible path, says party leader Ebba Busch.
Stop team
But while waiting to get more parties on board with that line, KD wants to see a stopgap law that prohibits regions from closing emergency hospitals until it is clear what a national basic supply of emergency care should look like. They also want to see a national ban on regions closing care units without adequate alternatives.
The KD's national congress has also decided that the party will work to develop a national vaccination program for the elderly.
