Each time a patient seeks care from a network-based care provider - so-called network doctors - it costs SEK 500 for the care center where the patient is listed.

In Halland, these costs have increased from approximately SEK 1 million in 2016 to SEK 8 million in 2018. All indications are that the cost will increase further this year, despite the cost per online physician contact being lowered in the past year.

Add the cost centrally

In SVT News Halland's report this week, Mikael Lundborg, head of operations at the Victoria Clinic in Halmstad, told us that the costs are now so high that they correspond to a nurse's service at his health center. If it continues, it may adversely affect the quality of the reception.

- If the politicians think it is important with these network companies, you can decide to put the cost centrally in the county council. Some regions have done so in Sweden, so the cost is taken from a central account and not directly from the health center, he says in SVT's report.

But that solution says the leading Halland regional politicians whom SVT News Halland has been in contact with no to.

"It would not lower the costs for the region," says Mikaela Waltersson (M), chair of the regional board.

- Today, the health centers receive medical money to cover foreign visits, which this is about, so it should have a budget for it. So it is not relevant, says Tommy Rydfeldt (L), vice chairman of the regional board.

bILL

Instead, it is a statutory change at national level that the Halland politicians want to get through. There is already a government inquiry on the government's table. It proposes, among other things, that healthcare companies should not be allowed to run solely online-based care in a county where they also do not have a physical care center or otherwise agree with the region.

The proposal is supported by both Mikaela Waltersson (M) and Tommy Rydfeldt (L) and other Vice Chairman of the Regional Board, Lise-Lotte Bensköld Olsson (S).