The head of care: Sweden has acted weakly and late

Attendo is one of the Nordic region's largest private health and care companies with hundreds of nursing homes in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

In a new report, they compare how the countries have handled the corona crisis.

- The Swedish authorities' actions have been poorly coordinated and lagged behind the needs we have seen in the business.

In the rest of the Nordic region, the authorities have acted more proactively and collectively, they write.

Among other things, Attendo highlights testing and infection tracking as a major shortcoming.

According to them, it took until the beginning of June before a broad testing began at Swedish nursing homes.

- It was already underway in March in the other Nordic countries.

Tests and infection tracing are absolutely crucial to be able to protect a nursing home, says Martin Tivéus, CEO of Attendo.

Introduced requirements for mouth protection

According to state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, this is because capacity was not in place at an early stage.

- Capacity had to be prioritized and then the most important thing you could do was to ensure that the infection did not get into healthcare, says Tegnell.

Attendo participated in a study with Karolinska University Hospital which showed that 7 percent of the staff at 30 of their nursing homes were carriers despite being asymptomatic, therefore they have introduced requirements that all staff must wear mouth guards and visors at all times at work.

- We see it as extremely important, it has been worked on in the other countries since early in the pandemic, says Marin Tivéus.

Up to each business

But this is not a requirement from the Swedish Public Health Agency.

- Here, all businesses must make their own assessments, I have no opinions right now about how big differences it would make, says Anders Tegnell.

But Attendo's operations have also been hit hard by the pandemic.

At most, over 160 of their residents in Sweden had confirmed cases of covid-19.

What could you have done differently?

- This is a question I have asked myself many times.

We have adjusted our measures on an ongoing basis and we now know that it is important to request testing early and that the staff is protected and trained, says Martin Tivéus.