Dental staff active in Stockholm have for some time been able to book an appointment for vaccination of Covid-19, even though it is not yet their turn.
The loophole was discovered after a person in the Facebook group "We who work with dental care" posted a post about how he managed to lead the queue for care staff and also been vaccinated, according to a member of the group that SVT has been in contact with.
The post also contained descriptions of how others in dentistry can go about doing the same.
"No problem"
The effect was that several people booked an appointment for vaccination, while others opposed because they did not want to push ahead of the queue.
The member of the Facebook group that SVT has been in contact with tried to make a booking to see if it worked, but only to then cancel it immediately.
- It was like no problem.
The only thing you needed to do was write down which workplace you worked at.
There was no more control than that.
But I do not want to take the vaccine before anyone else who needs it better.
It is through the Stockholm region's care app "Always open" that staff in, for example, emergency care and home health care are vaccinated according to a pre-determined order, where the oldest are given priority first.
Dental staff appear further down the queue, but could already now with the help of bank ID get over free times in the app.
- We do not control how staff have acted.
This has spread in various ways, including social media, says Mikael Lindgren Ebenholtz, administrative director of Stockholm County's healthcare area, which conducts health and medical care under the auspices of the Stockholm Region, including the app "Always open".
But, how do they act? There was the opportunity to book. Why was that opportunity? Is it your responsibility not to have it?
- The opportunity did not exist.
It's a bit how you have acted.
It was the case that if you had not had this information, you would not have been able to book.
It is still unclear how long the loophole has existed and how many may have had time to get vaccinated, but after Stockholm County's healthcare area found out about the irregularities, all bookings were withdrawn.