Medical Association: The State Should Be Responsible for Emergency Hospitals

The state must take over the responsibility for the emergency hospitals to ensure that healthcare is based on national needs and planned with long-term perspective, writes Elin Karlsson, chairperson of the Hospital Doctors, on Svenska Dagbladet's debate page.

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Medical Association: The State Should Be Responsible for Emergency Hospitals
Photo: Martina Holmberg/TT

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While the authorities see a need to increase access to healthcare, several regions are working in the opposite direction, she believes. Sollefteå, Arvika, Köping, and Ljungby are examples of smaller emergency hospitals that are now at risk of being closed down.

According to Karlsson, the closures are not driven by geographical distribution or local community conditions, but by "21 individual regions' political and bureaucratic agendas".

Sweden has long been at the bottom when it comes to the number of hospital beds within the OECD, something that both the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Health and Social Care Inspectorate have highlighted. According to Karlsson, however, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has long tried to downplay and tone down the problems.

"As long as the regions are responsible for healthcare, clear frameworks are needed at the national level, for example, regarding access to hospital beds and how far it should be at most to emergency care from urban areas in Sweden, for example, a maximum of ten miles."

The hospital doctors are calling for a cross-party agreement that establishes that the state should take over responsibility for the placement, orientation, and dimensioning of emergency hospitals to meet citizens' needs.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for local and international readers

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