Response to interpellation 2025/26:500 on the future of Köping Hospital and other identified hospitals threatened with closure
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that healthcare is a central part of Sweden's total defense and that a robust healthcare structure is crucial for the population's security 1. KD emphasizes that the government has allocated resources to strengthen healthcare capacity and reduce healthcare queues 1. KD underlines that decisions regarding individual hospitals lie with the regions and that Socialstyrelsen has received a mandate to secure the availability of healthcare beds in strategically important areas 1 2. KD points out that healthcare queues have decreased and that the number of healthcare beds is now increasing 2. KD argues that the government is the only one in a long time to have taken the initiative to offer the regions the opportunity to be paid to secure emergency care beds and trauma care 3. KD believes that the government has taken responsibility for securing a healthcare supply that strengthens the total defense 3. S considers that an urgent care center cannot replace a 24-hour emergency department as it is a completely different function and security 4. S argues that Köping's hospital can be a strong emergency hospital with 24-hour emergency care if there is political will 4. S believes that the dismantling of hospitals can be stopped with a Social Democratic government 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! Åsa Eriksson has asked the Minister for Social Affairs if he is having any dialogue with Region Västmanland regarding the future of Köping Hospital in light of its possible role as a preparedness hospital and what measures the Minister intends to take to secure the future of Köping Hospital and other hospitals in the country that are threatened with closure.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
I would like to initially emphasize that healthcare is a central part of Sweden's total defense and must be able to function even during peacetime crises, high alert, and war. The ability to maintain care under difficult conditions is crucial for both the population's security and Sweden's collective defense capability.
NATO membership entails sharpened expectations regarding Sweden's ability to handle mass casualty incidents. The Swedish healthcare chain needs to be able to take care of injured soldiers from allied forces and, if necessary, relieve other countries' healthcare systems, even for civilians. Sweden therefore needs to strengthen the healthcare system's capacity to pivot and manage a large number of casualties. A robust healthcare structure in peacetime is a prerequisite for meeting the needs in wartime. Increased healthcare capacity can contribute to both increased patient safety in everyday life and improved capability during mass casualty events.
Regarding the question of dialogue with Region Västmanland, I would like to emphasize that Socialstyrelsen maintains an ongoing dialogue with the regions, including Region Västmanland, within the framework of the agency's mandate to launch a pilot for preparedness hospitals in 2026. The objective is that it shall form the basis for continued work to create capacity corresponding to preparedness hospitals in several locations in Sweden. According to Försvarsberedningen, there should be preparedness hospitals in Gotland and in Norrland for geographical reasons.
Significant resources are allocated for the coming years, which underscores the government's long-term ambition to build up a robust and sustainable preparedness. In the budget bill for 2026 (prop. 2025/26:1), 750 million kronor are allocated during 2027 and 1 billion kronor annually from and including 2028 for this purpose.
When it comes to which measures I intend to take, I want to emphasize that decisions regarding the organization, direction, and any decommissioning or closure of individual hospitals currently, as far as I know, lie with the respective regions. The state responsibility aims to strengthen healthcare as a whole. The Government has taken a number of measures to strengthen the conditions for accessible, equal, and robust healthcare throughout the country.
Examples of initiatives beyond emergency hospitals are the work to strengthen the hospitals' operational security by Socialstyrelsen, on behalf of the government, allocating funds to the regions so that operations can be conducted even during high alert. During 2026, approximately 689 million kronor have been allocated for this purpose.
During the mandate period, the government has also allocated almost 25 billion kronor in order to increase accessibility and shorten healthcare queues. A significant portion of these funds, approximately 11 billion kronor, has been distributed to the regions through the Ordinance (2024:1252) on state grants for strengthened accessibility and increased healthcare capacity in specialized care. The funds shall be used, among other things, to strengthen healthcare capacity and the working environment in specialized care, and the regions have great opportunities to use the state grant based on which interventions yield the best results in the respective region.
The Government will continue to work to ensure that healthcare across the country has the capacity and robustness required both in everyday life as well as in crisis and war.
Åsa Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Köping Hospital is not just any operation. It is a lifeline. It is a promise that care is nearby when minutes are life-deciding.
What is it that has happened then? Well, after the 2022 election, there was a broad consensus in Västmanland to keep the emergency care in Köping. Nevertheless, the conservative regional majority in Västmanland in 2024 – the Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna, and Liberalerna with the support of the Sverigedemokraterna – decided to practically phase out emergency care in Köping. By a margin of one vote, it was decided to replace an emergency hospital with a near-care center. It is not some small adjustment. It is a systemic shift.
Mr. Speaker! The emergency room is closed at night, specialist care is moved, and operations disappear. What remains is less care, longer distances, and increased insecurity for the residents of Västmanland.
At the same time, Mr. Speaker, the government states in a mandate to the National Board of Health and Welfare that Köping is a hospital that is subject to decommissioning. It is serious, because what does it mean in practice? Yes, that the state is apparently subtracting Köping's hospital as a full-fledged acute hospital due to the bourgeois majority's unpopular decision.
Here we stand today with a regional leadership that is dismantling, a government that classifies the hospital as threatened by decommissioning, and residents who wonder where the safety went.
Mr. Speaker! This is not just a local issue for Köping, but here lies an ideological dividing line for what kind of society we want.
For the right, healthcare seems to be a matter of structure, centralization, and spreadsheets. The Government, as is well known, wants to nationalize the entire healthcare system.
For us Social Democrats, healthcare is about security, proximity, and equality. Therefore, we say: A heart attack in Köping shall be treated quickly, not transported further away, to Västerås. A stroke shall receive care directly, not after an extra ambulance trip.
Mr. Speaker! In addition to the obvious deterioration this entails for the residents in Köping, Arboga, Kungsör, and Skinnskatteberg, the acute closure also seems to entail new costs for the region. There have been more transports, there has been a significantly higher burden on Västerås hospital, and there have been longer waiting times for care.
This is not efficient. Distance kills in acute care. But it seems to be ignored in the citizens' decisions.
Mr. Speaker! I would like to ask the Minister for Health and Care to answer an important question tonight. Why does it state in the National Board of Health and Welfare's mandate that Köping Hospital is subject to closure? What lies behind that?
We Social Democrats are clear about where we stand. We want to re-establish emergency care around the clock in Köping. We want Köping's hospital to be a real hospital, not subject to decommissioning. Why does the government write that Köping's hospital is subject to decommissioning?
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I will honestly say that I thought this was a debate in the Swedish Riksdag and not in a regional council. It is a bit strange to conduct a discussion about details in individual regions. I will nevertheless try to answer the question to the best of my ability.
In the assignment to the National Board of Health and Welfare, a number of hospitals are mentioned that have had recurring problems. It does not say "closure", as the member said, but it says "phasing out". There are a number of hospitals in Sweden where certain functions have been phased out, for example, temporarily closed during summer periods. It may be closed at night so that it is more of a minor emergency room or a day emergency clinic. In Sweden, there is in fact no definition of what an emergency hospital must contain to be a full-fledged emergency hospital.
For this reason, a number of hospitals are mentioned in the assignment that have had recurring problems with staying open and maintaining such abilities and such capacity as one can reasonably expect from a hospital. They also have recurring problems with the supply of competence.
These writings have received unreasonably great attention in relation to the other tasks that Socialstyrelsen has been given. A dialogue shall be held with the regions to see what the interest, capacity, and possibility look like to build up a pilot for preparedness hospitals.
The purpose is also to eventually be able to establish a model for preparedness hospitals in several locations. If the interest from these regions exists, there are now good conditions to receive help from the government and the state to maintain a capacity that enables one to strengthen the capacity in the event of crisis and war. That was how it was agreed in the Defense Preparedness Committee that a preparedness hospital could function.
The National Board of Health and Welfare has, as mentioned, had a dialogue with all regions and has also had a dialogue with Region Västmanland. A meeting was held on June 8, quite recently, in fact. The region has then had the opportunity to present views and ideas that the National Board of Health and Welfare has taken with them. The National Board of Health and Welfare will return in August with a plan for the continued work.
Even though I do not want to delve into regional politics here in the chamber, I have understood that a decision has been made regarding funds to renovate Köping Hospital. We therefore do not need to exaggerate the threat to the hospital as a whole in this debate.
Åsa Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Health and Social Affairs, for the answer! It was both clarifying and confusing.
First and foremost: There is no emergency department at Köping Hospital right now, because the Minister for Health's party comrades and the rest of the governing majority in Region Västmanland have closed it. That is why it has problems staying open – it has been deliberately closed.
Before the closure, as far as I know, there were no problems with staying open. There were also no problems with the supply of skills. Now, however, we have enormous problems with the supply of skills.
The doctors and specialist nurses who have previously worked with the activities that exist at an emergency department that is open around the clock have now chosen to work at other hospitals. The work tasks that they are educated and trained for are no longer there. So now there are problems with competence supply! But it is something that the bourgeois majority has created.
It is very welcome that the Minister for Health and Social Affairs says that the state can help with resources so that one can have a preparedness perspective and be prepared for both everyday life and crises. That is very good. But the simplest thing of all would be if the government ensured that the state grants were inflation-proofed so that the regions would not have to cut back every year to make the budget balance. That is the biggest problem with the welfare system right now.
Since the government has failed to inflation-proof the state grants, regions and municipalities are being depleted now. They have put them on a starvation diet.
We Social Democrats have always had inflation-indexed state grants in our budget motions. We have had that throughout the entire mandate period.
If the Minister for Health, should she be allowed to continue after the election this autumn, wants to invest in targeted grants for emergency hospitals, we do not, of course, say no to that, but there are other ways that are simpler.
The people of Köping do not deserve less care. They deserve the same security as others. Let me be straight and honest now. Without a political shift in Region Västmanland, the closed night clinic in Köping will not be reopened. And without a political shift in the government, even more hospitals in Sweden will unfortunately be listed as "under decommissioning." A different political prioritization was needed.
When important treatments disappear and operations are moved, the conditions for recruiting and retaining staff also disappear. When expertise leaves, it is not only the hospital that is weakened, but the quality of care throughout the entire region.
Mr. Speaker! A hospital cannot be closed at night, because acute illnesses do not take the evening off. If it is to be an acute hospital, it must be open around the clock. Safety cannot be centralized to the largest cities. It must exist where people live. Distance matters when it comes to acute illness. When the government calls Köping threatened with decommissioning in its assignment to Socialstyrelsen, it becomes a self-fulfilling policy.
I regret the messages from the Minister for Health and can only state that if the voters want a 24-hour emergency department in Köping, they need to vote for other parties than those who currently govern Region Västmanland.
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I regret that I have to remind again that we are in the chamber of the Riksdag and not in a regional council chamber. There is a lot of talk about regional politics and regional priorities. On that theme, we could discuss Ljungby and Sollefteå, where the interpellant's party comrades rule and are closing down real hospitals and shutting down emergency rooms. But I do not think we should have this discussion here, but rather stick to the issues that are actually to be discussed here.
The government has taken a great responsibility to strengthen the regions' conditions to fortify healthcare. We also see effects of this now, as the healthcare queues have decreased by 36 percent compared to when the Social Democrats ruled the country. In October 2022, when power was handed over to us, almost 56,000 more people than today were waiting illegally long for care. These are people of flesh and blood who are suffering and need care.
For the first time in many years, the number of care beds is also increasing, which plays a huge role in being able to maintain good and patient-safe care, be an attractive workplace, and secure the supply of competence.
These are also aspects that Socialstyrelsen carries with it in its mandate. One must consider the availability of healthcare beds and ensure that there is a healthcare bed capacity in strategically important areas in Sweden to strengthen the entire country's total defense capability, where healthcare is a completely central part. Precisely for that reason, we have given this rather unique mandate to Socialstyrelsen. No other government has done anything similar to ensure that there is a healthcare supply throughout the country.
I remind again that with the organization we have today, the type of structural changes occurring in several regions – not least in several S-led regions, such as Västernorrland and Kronoberg – are still the regions' responsibility. It is the regions' responsibility to ensure that the inhabitants receive the care they need and to decide which hospitals and healthcare facilities they choose to have.
Åsa Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker! A local clinic does not replace a 24-hour emergency department – just as a fire extinguisher cannot replace a fire station. It is a completely different function and a completely different sense of security, and above all, it provides a completely different opportunity to save lives in time. Therefore, I believe the Minister needs to answer what is at the core of this debate: Is the Tidö Government's line that more smaller emergency hospitals should be dismantled? Or is the Minister prepared to stand up for emergency care being available near people also outside the largest cities and thus inflation-proof the state grants so that the regions can maintain the emergency care?
Mr. Speaker! Köping Hospital can be a strong acute hospital with 24-hour emergency care. But that requires political will, and that will is unfortunately lacking; we have heard that from the government here today. Therefore, the message to everyone living in the KAK area is also clear: Only with a Social Democratic government in the region and in the government can the dismantling be stopped and safety restored.
A region is not just its residence city. Köping, Arboga, Kungsör and Skinnskatteberg are also part of Västmanland and need proximity to a 24-hour emergency room, and this is how it looks in many parts of Sweden.
This is about an ideological prioritization of what type of healthcare we want in Sweden. It is an important choice this autumn, and we know what we will be working for.
The question to the Minister for Health remains: Is the Tidö government's line that more small acute hospitals should be closed, or will they be given the opportunity to continue to remain open?
Sjukvårdsministern Elisabet Lann (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Once again the debate is sliding over into regional politics, and I regret that. I will not comment on specific functions and issues in Västmanland – even though I understand that it serves a function to create content in one's own constituency. I'll concede that.
When it comes to how the government stands regarding securing emergency healthcare, this government is actually the only government in a very long time that has taken the initiative to offer the regions the opportunity to be paid to ensure that they can maintain emergency care beds, trauma care, and other functions needed in the event of a crisis, disaster, and ultimately war. It is, for example, about being able to scale up operations to handle a mass casualty incident. The government has thus truly shown that we are prepared to take responsibility for ensuring that there is a healthcare provision that strengthens the total defense, resilience, and the possibility of maintaining care throughout the country.
But the member's party is not prepared to let the state take a greater responsibility for healthcare so that the healthcare provision remains. Sweden has had several waves of closures of acute hospitals, and today Sweden has too few acute care beds. It is also the reason why the government has given the National Board of Health and Welfare this assignment.
The clear answer to the question is that, unlike previous governments, this government has taken responsibility.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.