Response to interpellation 2025/26:16 on deaths due to lack of healthcare beds
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns deaths due to a lack of healthcare beds. KD argues that the government is working for effective state governance and has allocated 18 billion SEK to shorten healthcare queues 1. KD considers it reasonable to set requirements on the regions' tax collection to avoid mismanagement 2. KD believes that the investigation into the right to tax aims to stop vanity projects and that the shortage of healthcare beds is less today than before 3. KD argues that earmarked state grants are necessary 4. KD considers it not credible that S claims that an additional 1.2 billion solves the problems 4. KD argues that S lacks solutions and only continues to put money into healthcare 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Ola Möller has asked me how I mean that the policy pursued has created more healthcare places and in what way the now announced policy makes any difference compared to the results so far for the government.
Initially, I want to emphasize that I, like Ola Möller, take the current situation regarding the lack of healthcare capacity and an insufficient number of available healthcare beds within the healthcare system seriously. However, I do not share Ola Möller's view that the policy the government has pursued has exacerbated the problem and the situation for the regions.
The primary authorities for health and medical care consist of directly elected politicians at the regional and municipal levels with taxing rights. This means that it is the regions and municipalities that both decide on the budget, are responsible for providing good health and medical care on equal terms for the entire population, and are responsible for managing any surpluses or deficits in the health and medical care budget. The Government is actively working to ensure that state governance is designed as purposefully and cost-effectively as possible with the intention of providing real support for the primary authorities.
The government has during the mandate period allocated approximately 18 billion kronor to shorten the healthcare queues and increase accessibility to care. During 2025, almost 6 billion kronor are allocated to the healthcare providers for this purpose. These are funds that, depending on the providers' priorities, can be used to expand healthcare capacity, for example through investments in more care beds or to strengthen the supply of competence, which is a key factor in increasing accessibility to care.
In addition to providing funds, the government has taken several measures to strengthen state governance and support the regions' work to reduce the shortage of care beds. For example, the government has tasked Socialstyrelsen with updating and developing the national target value for the number of available care beds, which Ola Möller refers to in his question. Through the target value, the conditions are improved for healthcare actors to work actively and systematically with managing the shortage of care beds in a way that was not previously possible.
The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare's proposed measures, which are part of the national plan to reduce the shortage of care beds that the agency presented last year, are a result of a decision that the government made already in February 2023. In the plan, several proposals and recommendations are submitted to the regions aimed at increasing the healthcare capacity and reducing the shortage of available care beds. The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare's latest update of the target value from May this year also shows that the shortage of care beds has decreased slightly compared to the previous year.
In the budget bill for 2026 (prop. 2025/26:1), the government proposes several initiatives that contribute to a strengthened healthcare capacity. The intensive work to develop and improve a national healthcare coordination, which strengthens the conditions for utilizing existing healthcare capacity in an efficient manner across the entire country, continues and is reinforced. The government proposes that a total of 275 million kronor be allocated for this purpose during 2026.
In addition to this, the government continues the initiative with performance-based funds to the regions to shorten healthcare queues and strengthen accessibility, including by continuing and developing the ongoing initiative to increase the number of operations for cataracts, anterior cruciate ligament tears, and hip replacements, which already today leads to fewer patients waiting illegally long for care. In the budget bill for 2026, the government proposes that a total of 6.6 billion kronor be allocated in performance-based funds to the regions for the purpose of strengthening accessibility and shortening healthcare queues. A national queue coordinator will also be appointed with the mandate to ensure that the work to shorten healthcare queues is carried out in an efficient and coordinated manner.
Lack of accessibility, long healthcare queues, and a lack of healthcare capacity have been a problem for a long time. Through the measures the government has implemented and will implement during the mandate period, there are good conditions to shorten the healthcare queues – an issue that will also continue to be high on my and the government's agenda. I look forward to working together with the regions in this important work.
Ola Möller (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
The reason I have submitted this interpellation is that this past summer there was a severe shortage of space at the hospital in my hometown, Helsingborg, which led to a man's death. Unfortunately, Helsingborgs lasarett is perhaps the hospital in the country where the care crisis is manifested most clearly. Despite the fact that the staff work hard every day and make fantastic efforts, it is crisis upon crisis upon crisis. The tragic incident this past summer is unfortunately just one of many sad examples. The overcrowding has been a recurring theme for many years, and it has even been a criminal offense when staff have been urged to break the care guarantee. We can almost always read about crisis and chaos at the emergency room, managers who have had to leave their positions, and constant cuts and savings.
All of this is due to a lack of political leadership. A notorious statement was made by the minister's party colleague and the chairman of the hospital board that 50 nursing assistants should be removed because they were not useful to the patients. This has also led to the fact that Tidö colleagues have been reported to Ivo by the patient ombudsman, i.e., by their own party colleagues in Region Skåne. The audit has also been critical. Furthermore, the political leadership fabricated a story in a debate article that the queues would disappear in a year – something that, obviously, has not been fulfilled.
To this should be added that the region, year after year, runs enormous deficits of 4 billion per year. They have already borrowed 8 billion, and this year it looks like they need to borrow even more. It is about 10–12 billion that in Skåne are pushed onto children and grandchildren, and yet the queues are among the longest in the country.
This is due to the fact that the funding is too low. The overriding principle in Skåne is, in fact, that one should have the lowest regional tax. In light of this, it becomes extremely interesting to read the response from the Minister for Health and Care, where she points to the regions' right to tax their citizens to manage healthcare. How does this square with the government wanting to set a cap on the tax collection for the regions? The government has appointed an inquiry to restrict local self-government, and for those of you who cannot read between the lines of politicians, local self-government also implies regional self-government. The government says that the regions are not allowed to raise taxes above certain levels. At the same time, the minister says that the regions can tax their citizens and thereby solve the healthcare crisis.
I would like to hear the principled reasoning from the Minister for Health and Social Affairs. Do the regions have the right to tax, and should they have it in the future as well so that they can manage the financing? If they are not to have it, is the Minister for Health and Social Affairs prepared to take away the local self-government from the regions? Will the state then provide the money that the regions cannot collect in taxes?
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! This will be an exciting debate. I represent a party that has the solution to this issue. What is the Social Democrats' solution to poor regional management and governance?
Today's system means that the regions have the right to tax, are responsible for financing healthcare, and are responsible for the principalship, i.e., providing healthcare to their inhabitants.
However, it differs very much between the regions, and the unequal care is one of the Swedish healthcare's biggest problems and concerns. That is also why we have allocated such large funds. The 18 billion we have allocated so far during the mandate period have made a little, little difference on the margin. We see that it is starting to brighten, and we see several positive trends. That is good, and we must maintain this work.
It is, however, obvious that it is also about how one organizes healthcare in the regions. Just putting more money into what is not working is not the solution. Money must be allocated, and we shall continue to support the regions. But one must also start working differently. Sweden is at the top when it comes to how much healthcare costs per capita. We are very high but do not deliver at that level. There are systemic errors.
One of these errors is an underdeveloped first-line care, primary care. It is there that many of the healthcare's problems must be solved, because that is what creates the enormous overcrowding in emergency care, which was also the reason for the terribly tragic incident this summer. Patients should not be sitting in the emergency room; instead, they should have open doors into primary care so that they can receive care earlier. Here, the regions have a huge job to do.
With today's organization of healthcare, the state's and the government's possibilities are somewhat limited, because it is the regions that are responsible for healthcare. And yes, they have the right to levy taxes. That we then talk about setting certain requirements so that they cannot collect as much tax as they want and at the same time receive a lot of money through state grants, the municipal equalization system, and so on, is reasonable. We cannot continue to promote mismanagement by either municipalities or regions.
Ola Möller (S)
Mr. Speaker! I like politicians, for obvious reasons. We are good at not answering questions. We talk about what we prefer to talk about and what the heart is full of, and then we ignore taking hold of the question that was actually asked.
What I wondered was whether the minister could provide a principled argument regarding regional self-government. Does the minister seriously mean that it is right to curtail the regions' right to taxation? She herself said in her answer to me that the regions have that right. I would like to hear that reasoning.
Then it is good that we agree that the political governance in Region Skåne is not up to standard, because that is what I heard too: The political governance in various regions is not up to standard. That it is true in Region Skåne, as we said, we are in complete agreement on.
It will be a way of capitulating to the main issue. The Minister is well aware that healthcare will not be nationalized and dismantled in the regions. The Minister knows this. An investigation with an incredibly broad parliamentary support has reached a conclusion during this mandate period.
The Christian Democrats have no answer at all, from what I can hear. One cannot live in a fairy-tale world where it solves itself just because we nationalize. What is the minister's answer as a representative of the government? The government does not want to nationalize healthcare. We can put aside the Christian Democrats' dream, which will not be fulfilled, and then the minister can answer the question: Is the intention that regional self-government should be restricted and that the right of taxation for the regions should be curtailed?
Then I wonder if the Minister can answer the question: Do we have more healthcare beds today, 2025, than when the government took office?
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I did actually answer the question, but I perhaps answered in words that were a bit too circumstantial to understand.
The investigation is not about removing the right of taxation, but about the fact that it is unreasonable for regions and municipalities to spend money on large vanity projects and then think that the government is providing too little money for schools. It simply doesn't hold up. In my home municipality, Gothenburg, for example, an arena is to be built for 15 billion.
There are reasons to take municipalities and regions to task if they cannot prioritize the core of the welfare system. It is worth looking into. I do not know what it is like in the member's home region and what boastful projects they might have there, but this is the reason for the investigation.
When it comes to care beds, it is not more care beds today. The National Board of Health and Welfare develops the key figures based on needs. One simply measures overcapacity over the year. What is good about the fact that the need for inpatient care beds is decreasing is that it is a sign that one manages to discharge to municipal primary care on a larger scale and that more can be handled there.
It is such a development we want to see, but in the short term we continue to need more care beds. Therefore, it is incredibly unfortunate when regions phase out care beds. But the shortage of care beds is, as said, less today than previously.
Ola Möller (S)
Mr. Speaker! I do not perceive that the answer to the question is whether the regions should have free taxing rights or not, but it is about a simple yes or no. Shall the regions be allowed to set the tax rates as they wish, or shall they not be allowed to do so – yes or no? That is what the investigation is about – a cap on the taxing rights. Then it becomes a strange reasoning in the answer.
It is interesting regarding the care beds. Socialstyrelsen is clear that approximately 1,900 care beds are missing. It is as if we are supposed to suffer for a while, and then it will get better. But if we have fewer care beds now than when the government took office and 1,900 beds are missing, one wonders how that adds up, in terms of what legitimate expectation the citizens have.
It also becomes a strange argument where 18 million recurs. Excuse me, 18 billion I mean, because not even I believe the government is so poorly managed that it sends 18 million. I must say that SKR is very clear that the money is detail-steered. It is no increase of the general grants, which means that the government is interfering in the regions' self-determination.
Even on the point that the Minister mentions, that is to say that the principals and directly elected politicians themselves should be allowed to decide, the government has completely scrapped that possibility. It is therefore not only in the taxation part that the government does not think the regions should be allowed to govern their operations themselves, but it also concerns how the state grants are targeted. This is deeply problematic.
I wonder if the government is really in agreement here. One side wants to abolish the regions, which we here are in agreement not to do. The government is not holding its policy together in this case.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! The government is increasing the state control of healthcare. That is why we earmark state grants in that way. It has shown that it does not work particularly well to pour money over regions that leak.
When we cannot see any change, you Social Democrats cannot mean seriously that an additional 1.2 billion, which you want to give approximately, would solve the healthcare system's problems. It is not credible to claim that the extra little sum would make all the difference, when we have injected so many funds.
When it comes to the transition to good and close care, the Agency for Health and Social Care Analysis shows that it is not possible to trace the 30 billion that were supposed to go to the transition to good and close care. Instead, it is seen that the regions continue to allocate an ever larger share of the funding to specialist healthcare and an ever smaller share to primary care.
In a majority of the regions, no difference is seen, or it is a difference in the wrong direction. It is not sustainable. That is why we are now moving forward more with performance-based state grants. We sign bilateral agreements with the regions because we see that agreements through SKR have not functioned and have not yielded the right results. By instead providing each region with support, which they can participate in setting goals for so that they do not become earmarked in a way that the regions cannot manage, we believe that we can help them reach the goals better.
We are meeting a positive response from the regions. But you in the Social Democrats have no proposals, you just continue to spend money on healthcare. You have no solutions to the problems.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.