Response to interpellation 2025/26:48 on care of patients from Gaza
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD does not rule out receiving patients from Gaza as a complement to support on-site, but believes it is crucial that people receive immediate help where they are 1. KD argues that Sweden is at the top internationally with over 1.5 billion SEK in humanitarian aid and that the shortage of healthcare beds has not worsened 2. KD argues that practical legalities make it difficult to receive patients from Gaza as they are not covered by the freedom of visa 3. KD emphasizes that Sweden prioritizes that the money does the greatest possible good by supporting care in the surrounding area 3 and is proud of the humanitarian aid 4. V argues that Sweden has not received a single patient despite 16 European countries having done so 5. V believes that Sweden should act more actively and receive severely ill patients on humanitarian grounds, just as was done for Ukraine 6. SD argues that Sweden has a shortage of healthcare beds and that it is not solidarity to receive patients from Gaza when Swedish patients are waiting for care 7. SD considers it absurd to discuss receiving patients from Gaza when Swedish elderly people have been waiting for several years for surgeries 8. SD argues that countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, have the capacity to receive patients and that Swedish politicians should consider prioritizing their own citizens 8.
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! Karin Rågsjö has asked me how I intend, within my area of responsibility, to work to ensure that people receive immediate help in Gaza under the current conditions. Karin Rågsjö has also asked me if I intend to take measures to receive patients from Gaza.
It is very welcome and long-awaited that Israel and Hamas have agreed on the first phase of a peace plan. The ceasefire has entered into force, and all hostages who are alive have been released. It is now important to have a full implementation of the agreement and to pave the way for a two-state solution. We welcome the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution which approves the peace plan. The resolution is an important step towards a lasting end to the war and an end to the unimaginable civilian suffering.
It is welcome and entirely necessary that certain improvements in humanitarian access have occurred during the first phase of the peace plan. However, obstacles still remain for the aid that is needed to reach its destination, and even though the deliveries of emergency aid have increased, they are judged to continue being insufficient to meet the very extensive needs. It is central that we see continued progress and that unimpeded humanitarian access is ensured. This requires, among other things, more open border crossings, security for humanitarian convoys, and access for international non-governmental organizations.
The government does not rule out, like other countries, receiving patients for care in Sweden as a complement to support on-site. This applies to all the places in the world that are currently being shaken by major humanitarian pressures on the civilian population. On every occasion, the circumstances must be considered, including from the perspective of how we can most quickly reach out with help to those in need and how we additionally best help as many as possible. In the current situation, it is crucial to ensure that people receive immediate help where they are.
Sweden has since the beginning of the war contributed over 1.5 billion kronor in humanitarian aid to the response in Gaza. To assist the challenging healthcare situation, Sweden has, among other things, provided extra support to Unicef, which assists children and families with health and medical care and social support, to ICRC, which delivers life-saving medical equipment and healthcare support, and to UNFPA, which works with life-saving maternity care, maternal healthcare, and care of newborns. The Government has also allocated funds to the Egyptian Red Crescent's work for Gaza. The Swedish support is aimed at interventions related to medical evacuations from Gaza as well as logistics support for humanitarian deliveries into Gaza.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that the government has tasked the National Board of Health and Welfare with assessing the possibility of donating medical products to disaster- or war-affected areas abroad through the EU's civil protection mechanism. This has, among other things, resulted in Sweden donating requested medical equipment to Egypt, which is receiving patients from Gaza. Sweden has additionally contributed personnel to the EU's border support mission in Rafah (EUBAM Rafah), which earlier this year played an important role in enabling severely injured individuals to leave Gaza to receive care. Sweden stands ready to contribute to the mission again.
The government will continue to support the humanitarian response in Gaza.
Karin Rågsjö (V)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! It is a bit more positive than previous answers on the same question.
This is a very fragile peace. At least 327 people, including 136 children, have been killed during the period since the ceasefire was announced on October 9. After Hamas's terror attack against the Israeli civilian population, a hell's gate opened for Palestinians in Gaza. The Gaza we can see now is a Gaza in ruins. We all hope for a just and long-lasting peace for all involved.
According to the UN, 68,000 Palestinians have been killed and 170,000 have been injured since October 7, 2023. Half are children, according to Médecins Sans Frontières. At the same time, the entire healthcare system in Gaza has more or less collapsed. Operations are still being performed without pain relief. As I have written and spoken about before, very many are in need of medical evacuation.
Severely ill children would survive with care. Then one wonders where Sweden is. Nearly 17,000 patients are waiting for evacuation, many of them children. They are chronically ill and people with cancer, heart disease, and other severe conditions. The care they need is not available on site – Israel has systematically torn down Gaza's healthcare system, one could say.
There are, however, countries that are taking their responsibility: 16 European countries and countries such as Jordan, Albania and Norway – which are also located in Europe – have received patients. Sweden has not received a single one. The last thing I saw was that Italy received 20 seriously ill and injured children. I still ask myself where Sweden is.
Both the UN and the EU have pleaded for Sweden to do the same as these increasingly many countries, and they continue to receive a "no". At a meeting in October 2024, the then Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Acko Ankarberg Johansson, stated that Sweden helps best by supporting healthcare on the ground in Gaza. Minister for Development Cooperation Benjamin Dousa has stated that Sweden should instead prioritize support to Egypt so that they can receive patients, and that is indeed what they do in Egypt. It is also a country that receives international aid in order to be able to provide care to its own population.
At the same time, it is actually very many healthcare providers in Sweden who would like to see us receive patients here – but without it happening at the expense of Swedish healthcare.
My question to the Minister is still: Does the Minister consider – despite the fact that many countries have succeeded – that the process is too complicated to even attempt to receive patients? How are we to ensure that people receive immediate help in Gaza?
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Mr. Speaker! The question of why Sweden should, for some strange reason, accept patients from Gaza, when we have patients in Sweden who have to wait for years to receive an operation, has now been pushed by the red-green parties for more than a year. A written question on this was submitted by the Social Democratic Member of Parliament Arber Gashi already in October last year. Since then, the red-green parties have nagged about Sweden accepting patients from Gaza.
I want to ask here and now some questions that any of the speakers can choose to answer. The National Board of Health and Welfare published a report in June where it was revealed that the shortage of care beds in Sweden leads to longer waiting times, increased risk of care injuries, and a poor working environment for the staff. How can we, if we have a general shortage of care beds in Sweden, receive patients from Gaza without it affecting Swedish patients?
It is important in this context to say that every patient from Gaza will occupy significant resources and expertise within healthcare – resources and expertise that Swedish patients need today. Since 2022, the number of available healthcare beds has decreased at the national level despite economic supplements.
A survey from March among the members of Läkarförbundet confirms that the shortage of care beds has worsened. Of those responding, every fifth person says they need to send patients home every week who should have been admitted. Every fourth doctor is forced every week to discharge patients prematurely due to a shortage of care beds. Almost every other doctor spends working time every week searching for care beds for patients. How can one then receive patients from Gaza, if there are no care beds for Swedish patients? It is not solidarity to let Swedish patients wait even longer in care queues.
It is also completely impossible for Swedish authorities to ensure that the person they receive is not a Hamas terrorist or a relative or friend of a Hamas terrorist. It is not the case that Hamas will allow those who are in opposition to the Islamists to be transported to Sweden to receive medical care. It is not the case that Hamas will allow those who are for peace to be transported to Sweden to receive medical care, but Hamas will take care of their own. It is they who will be transported to Sweden to receive medical care.
The interpellator from Vänsterpartiet mentions that Sweden has received Ukrainians and provided them with care. What the interpellator forgets, however, is that Sweden supports Ukraine in the country's defense against the Russian aggression. It is therefore obvious that we should give Ukraine all the support we can.
Sweden does not, however, support Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel and committed horrific atrocities. There is a big difference between Ukraine and Hamas, and the interpellor from Vänsterpartiet does not seem to understand that. That says quite a lot about the terror romanticism within Vänsterpartiet.
Swedish healthcare needs care beds, staff and resources – not more burden from the world's conflicts.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! The interpellator does not need to wonder where Sweden stands regarding the situation in Gaza. We are one of the countries that has given absolutely the most to alleviate the distress: over 1.5 billion. No matter how we compare internationally, we are at the absolute top.
It is not impossible or too complicated to move patients. Just as the interpellor points out, it has happened, but it is very few patients. It is not the most effective way to help as many as possible. I would, however, like to repeat that the government does not rule out accepting patients for care in Sweden, neither from Gaza nor from other war-affected areas.
We are making a continuous assessment of the situation with a focus on how we can best help as many people as possible as well as possible. In this situation, we assess that it is crucial to ensure that people receive immediate help where they are. It is therefore why we have allocated more funds throughout this entire period. We also see now that it is easier for resources to get in. We have also donated materiel to the healthcare system in Egypt, where they are receiving patients and where it is naturally also easier to get patients out.
Otherwise, I did not perceive so many questions but rather assertions about the shortage of care beds, Mr. Speaker. I just want to emphasize that the shortage of care beds has not worsened. It is somewhat smaller in the Socialstyrelsen's updated figures. They monitor this all the time. We still have a shortage of care beds, but it is somewhat smaller this year compared to last year.
I want to say again that it is very few patients who have been flown into Europe from Gaza. It is therefore nothing that affects the availability of care places or the capacity on an aggregate level in any of the around 15 countries that receive patients. It is therefore not a reason not to do it. On the other hand, we believe that funds should be used in the best way to provide the best possible care, and at the current time, we achieve this best as close as possible.
Karin Rågsjö (V)
Mr. Speaker! I can inform all Sweden Democrats that we have a healthcare debate next Wednesday, December 10, if one wishes to discuss healthcare specifically.
Mr. Speaker! So far, nearly 8,000 patients, of whom 70 percent are children, have been evacuated to 30 countries. It was too late for many of them, and many have died in the meantime. But it is as said, 16 European countries that have received almost 1,000 patients from Gaza. Most have been received by Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey and of course also Egypt as well as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. We think that is very good. One cannot really say that Italy is a terror-romantic country, and neither is Norway. But Sweden is therefore saying no to acutely ill patients from Gaza.
It is a line that receives criticism from many sides. Among others from the Swedish Pediatric Society, Sjukhusläkarna, the Swedish Medical Association, Doctors Without Borders and Vårdförbundet. Among hospitals that offer space, there are for example Karolinska, which obviously thinks that this would be good.
Anna Olivecrona is the chair of the Swedish Pediatric Society, and she is quite sharp in her tone in Svenska Dagbladet. She truly wonders why we cannot accept children from Gaza, when we accept patients from Ukraine. One can really wonder about that, I think. I would like to have an answer as to what the problem is.
It is not enough to support the care on the ground. This is the opinion of many who work in the area and have worked there for a long time, for example Doctors Without Borders. Mia Hejdenberg, who is a medical humanitarian advisor at Doctors Without Borders, notes that Sweden has received many injured from precisely Ukraine but not from Gaza.
Karolinska University Hospital has told DN that, just like other countries, they want to receive and take responsibility. The organization Sjukhusläkarna has been very interested and followed up on this, as they believe it would benefit Swedish healthcare if one could work more with severely injured patients – simply for some kind of preventive purpose. Vårdförbundet has also been a very strong driver in this.
It is not that the Left stands alone, but rather that there are very many others who would like Sweden to receive the severely ill and severely injured – just as was done during Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. We are proud that Sweden did it; that is how a country should act. If one stands on some kind of humanitarian ground, one should of course receive patients from Ukraine, and we therefore think it should be just as obvious to receive patients from Gaza.
One can wonder what the difference is. It is about humanism and about the need for help around the world. We believe that the government should engage in this a bit more actively and act just as Italy, Spain and Norway do. As the minister says, there are not many, but one must also do things outside that zone – outside Gaza and outside Egypt – to save more. It is about very severely injured people.
I still don't quite understand why there is such an insanely closed door towards Gaza, which I believe there is. To call it sad would be to put it quite mildly, but it gives a feeling that Ukraine is a country that we like and support, but that Gaza is something completely different. It is a very sad feeling. I do, however, hope for answers.
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Given that many are waiting for operations and other care in Sweden, there are people who wonder why wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia, which is closer to Gaza, cannot receive more patients from Gaza. Saudi Arabia has more than 500 hospitals, which is approximately five times more hospitals than Sweden has. It is unclear how many patients from Gaza Saudi Arabia has actually received.
How can it be that all these Arabic countries in the Middle East do not succeed in distributing the Gazans among themselves so that everyone can receive care? How is it that Gazans need to travel all the way to Europe to get care? There are several oil states in the Middle East that have very well-functioning hospitals, and they could accommodate quite a few Gazans.
Perhaps it is the case that these countries prioritize their own citizens. Prioritizing one's own citizens is something that Swedish politicians should consider. It is absurd to even talk about receiving patients from Gaza when elderly people here in Sweden have to wait three years for an operation. It is three years of pain.
What we have managed to establish in this debate today is that Vänsterpartiet prioritizes Gaza residents over Swedish citizens. While Swedes stand in line to receive care, Vänsterpartiet's member wants to bring patients from Gaza here. I believe I represent quite a few when I give the following message to Vänsterpartiet's member: Swedish patients shall not stand last in line in their own country.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! The interpellator mentioned 1,000 patients. I do not know where that figure comes from. It is always a bit risky to start playing numbers bingo, but the European countries that have received patients – as I mentioned, there are fifty of them – have received an average of 20 patients per country.
There is a big difference between receiving patients from Gaza and receiving patients from Ukraine. I regret if it does not feel good for the interpellor, but it is not a question of feelings here. Instead, it is about practical law regarding the patients. Patients from Gaza are simply not covered by the freedom of visa issuance, so a completely different paperwork exercise is required to arrange those evacuations. As an example of that, we can look at Norway, which has received a number – but still very few – patients. It took five months from the decision until they could receive the first patients.
The government does not have an absolutely closed door here. I repeat that we do not rule out the possibility of receiving patients from Gaza, nor from other war-torn countries, for care in Sweden. But the priority for Sweden, which is one of the world's most generous and dedicated donors to war-torn areas, is that the money should do the greatest possible good for the severely affected populations, and we see that more can get access to life-saving care if we continue to support in the surrounding area. It is therefore not just about Egypt; even though Egypt is the country that has received the most, there are more countries in the area that have received patients.
Karin Rågsjö (V)
Mr. Speaker! Yes, there are more countries right around here that have taken a very great responsibility. That is how it is.
I will not engage in what the member from SD said in the debate, but I can only say that even Italy has a healthcare system that they manage, so to speak. One does not need to be a person who puts their population last to think this way. In that case, that question can be asked of Italy, Norway, and so on.
The process for medical evacuations from Gaza is difficult; among other things, all requests must be sent to Cogat, an Israeli authority that is to be responsible for coordinating and facilitating humanitarian assistance. Patients with acute medical needs are sometimes denied evacuation regardless of how critical their situation is. Sometimes a patient is approved for evacuation but not the patient's relatives, and in that case, it can for example happen that a child is sent away alone.
There are, therefore, several things that complicate this, but despite the process being complicated, EU countries have already received patients from Gaza. That makes it an obvious difference that Sweden still does not do so. I think it is strange. It has almost been two and a half years – it is two years and three months – since this began, and there are absolutely the prerequisites to get help from, for example, Doctors Without Borders. They have been very interested in Sweden taking in patients.
A humanitarian catastrophe is still ongoing in Gaza, and their healthcare has also been completely obliterated. That must be remembered. Therefore, we must ensure that the conditions exist to do both – to both send aid and supplies and ensure that those who are absolutely the sickest can come to Sweden, just as was the case regarding those injured in the war in Ukraine.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I want to repeat once again that this is not comparable to Ukraine because Gazaborna is not covered by the freedom of movement.
It is also the case that there are several countries around Ukraine that pose a threat to Ukraine, which means that there are quite few countries other than Sweden that are nearby and where it is reasonable to send Ukrainian patients. That is not how the situation looks when it comes to Gaza, where there are several countries nearby where the transports are shorter and where it is easier to send patients for migration law reasons.
I still hope that we can agree that we have reason to be proud that Sweden is one of the countries that has sent absolutely the most funds – over 1.5 billion – to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. That is what is prioritized for the government.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.