Major improvements in prostate cancer in Kronoberg and Kalmar counties

In Kalmar, the waiting time from discovery to surgery for a prostate cancer tumor has decreased from 184 days in 2014, to today 98 days.

In Kronoberg, the trend is similar, from 160 days to today's 95. These are fresh statistics from the National Prostate Cancer Registry compiled by the Prostate Cancer Association. Krister Bengtsson is chairman of the Prostate Cancer Association in Kronoberg.

- It is very gratifying that it has finally started to "tick" down in the waiting times. For those who have been diagnosed, the queues to receive care for Sweden's most common cancer disease have been extremely long.

The statistics are national and cover the whole country. The figures are a median value that shows what happened between 2014 and 2018. For the whole country, waiting times for surgery on average have been accelerated by 13 days from 144 to 131. According to Krister Bengtsson, the improvements are due to improved work routines in health care.

- A national goal has been set that it should take no longer than 60 days, but so far not many people have come, says Krister.

Johan Rosenqvist is Director of Health in the Kalmar County region. He sees that long-standing work on these issues has now yielded fruit.

- I am delighted that it has become so good and think it is fun for our patients. It is gratifying that we have succeeded in shortening our waiting times. Then 98 days is still a very long time to wait for anyone who has been diagnosed.