Priorities within health and medical care
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns priorities within healthcare. M argues that the government's economic policy and sector contributions have saved healthcare and created a surplus 1. M emphasizes the importance of reducing unnecessary administration to get more care for the money and shorten healthcare queues 1. M prioritizes structural challenges such as competence supply, national digital infrastructure, as well as equal healthcare and research for women 1. M also advocates for state responsibility for screening programs and investments in blood donation with NAT testing 1. M considers S and MP's reservations to be superfluous 1.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Johan Hultberg (M)
Madam Speaker! We now have to debate a motion report with the title Priorities within health and medical care.
Under this heading, a long series of different questions are hidden, including among others regarding care for a large number of different specific diseases and conditions. It is impossible for me to cover all the areas addressed in the report during this debate. I will therefore focus on some parts, such as maternity care and women's healthcare, but let me begin with something more general.
Healthcare and medical services have been very severely tested in recent years. First came the pandemic, which meant an enormous strain on an already strained healthcare system and staff. Then inflation hit, which meant a new blow for the regions. When Magdalena Andersson left the post of Prime Minister, inflation was around 10 percent, which meant that pension costs for the regions spiraled and large deficits and warnings threatened.
When the Moderates and the Tidö parties won the election in 2022, it was therefore obvious for the new government to act quickly and powerfully and to prioritize healthcare. Thanks to a successful fight against inflation in combination with sector grants to health and medical care, layoffs have been prevented and care has been protected. Yes, the situation is still strained – but it is brightening. A total of 25 billion kronor extra is now available thanks to the lower pension costs that have followed. Deficits are turned into surpluses.
The Moderate-led government's responsible economic policy and extra sector grants have simply made a very positive difference. The 9 billion in sector grants that were paid out to the regions during last year correspond to 10,500 nurses. The extra sector grants have been targeted at healthcare, but the regions have had the opportunity to independently prioritize the resources where they have been most needed regionally.
In the uneasy times we are living in now, it is important to act with calm and objectivity. We are all appalled by how President Trump's whims and outbursts both create serious security policy unrest and cause the world's stock markets to shake. Against that background, it is remarkable that the Social Democrats and their party leader Magdalena Andersson choose to, in Trump's manner, spread pure lies about Swedish healthcare. Most recently, she claimed that 1,000 healthcare workers would be laid off in Region Skåne alone. The truth is that no healthcare personnel in Region Skåne are being threatened with dismissal. In fact, Region Skåne has never had more people working in healthcare than now.
Madam Speaker! Even though the economic situation for the regions is significantly better now than just a year ago, the regions' finances are challenging both today and, above all, in the long term – not least given the demographic development with ever more elderly people in need of care and ever fewer young people of working age. It will require more discussions about that which is the theme of today's debate, that is to say, priorities.
What we need to focus on above all, however, is how we can get more care for the money. That it is possible, I and the Moderaterna are firmly convinced of. But to get more care for the money and achieve what is particularly prioritized for us Moderaterna, namely more accessible care without long care queues, unnecessary administration must decrease, as well as other things that steal time from the individual patient encounter.
Regarding the healthcare queues, I am very pleased that we now have a government that prioritizes the work of shortening the queues and increasing healthcare capacity – a government that is testing new solutions to cut the queues. A special initiative is now being made to increase operations of cataracts, anterior cruciate ligament, and hip replacements. Work is also in full swing to develop a national healthcare brokerage. But more is needed. Further measures are required. Not least, we need to become better at utilizing all parts of the healthcare system and the many different competencies that work within healthcare.
In this report, there are many proposals regarding what within healthcare should be given higher priority. Striking, however, is that the proposals regarding what should then be prioritized lower are conspicuously absent.
Within the national health and medical care policy, the Moderate-led government prioritizes structural and strategic challenges, as well as issues and areas that require national action. Specifically, this is about shortening care queues and increasing care capacity. This, in turn, requires investments in competence supply and other structurally important issues, such as the creation of a national digital infrastructure.
Other examples where national leadership was needed concern women's healthcare and maternity care. We know that care is not yet equal and that care and research regarding diseases and ailments that particularly affect women is lagging behind. Therefore, I am very pleased that the Tidö Agreement, thanks to us, has a specific point on equal care and research on women's diseases and health.
From this point, an incredible amount is now happening. Examples can include the work on a national maternity plan, as well as the broad mandate given to Socialstyrelsen to carry out measures for equal healthcare with a focus on precisely diseases that affect women and girls. The mandate concretely involves, among other things, developing relevant knowledge support. One area that has been highlighted as a priority is menopausal symptoms, where the agency's plan is to publish a national knowledge support this autumn. S and MP's reservation 1 in this report is therefore completely superfluous.
Madam Speaker! Several other reservations concern different screening programs. Screening is a typical area where I and the Moderaterna see reason for the state to step forward and take a greater responsibility.
The same applies to blood donation, where I am very proud of the initiatives that the government has taken and the investments that the government has made so that every person who wants to donate blood shall be assessed individually and not be ruled out based on their sexual orientation. Now, large investments are also being made to gradually introduce so-called NAT testing, which means a safer screening of blood donors. This will mean that we can shorten the waiting periods for blood donation.
Sweden needs more blood donors, so if you are healthy – register as a blood donor at geblod.nu! You can help save lives.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, it is a matter for the Health Care Responsibility Committee to look at how the governance of health and medical care should look moving forward. I personally have the privilege of joining the committee, and I feel there is good hope that at the beginning of June we will be able to submit a report to the government with proposals that build on what works well in Swedish health and medical care but also address the challenges and problems regarding, among other things, accessibility and geographical differences.
Priorities within health and medical care
With that, Madam Speaker, I would like to move for approval of the committee's proposal and rejection of all reservations.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.