Medical Association: "The authorities need to act"

Heidi Stensmyren, chairman of the Swedish Medical Association, tells SVT News that good preparedness and ability to mobilize within the health care system exist, but that the margins are small in the strained situation that already exists today in both hospital care and primary care.

- We have a strained situation with few care places. There would be problems with care even if it was a common winter sickness.

If the hospitals go into reinforcement mode, care places will be released. Scheduled interventions and operations are prioritized, according to the principle that the sickest person goes first. Heidi Stensmyren believes that the authorities need to act, to ensure that medical materials and medicine are available.

- You cannot both eat the cake and keep it, it needs to be prioritized and signals from the authorities are needed, so that the number of places of care can be increased. Today we do not have care places based on the needs of the population, she says.

Erik Salaneck, an infectious doctor at Uppsala Academic Hospital, is critical of how authorities have communicated about the new coronavirus.

- I think there has been a split of information from the Public Health Authority regarding the risk. It has been stated very clearly that there is a low risk of infection spreading in Sweden. But we need to be prepared for a scenario that is worse than what is most likely, he tells SVT News.

Erik Salaneck believes that the Public Health Agency has referred to the fact that we have a very effective infection control system in Sweden.

- But there has been uncontrolled spread of infection in countries that have a well-developed healthcare system, such as South Korea and Italy. South Korea probably has one of the better preparedness in the world as it has suffered from major outbreaks in the past.

He is referring to the 2015 Mers outbreak, which is closely related to the new corona virus.

- South Korea does not save on gunpowder and at the same time we see a very worrying spread of infection. If it can happen there it can unfortunately happen here, therefore we must have a readiness. Then you can always hope that you do not have to use the contingency plan, but if you have no plan it will be difficult.