The regional director may decide over half a billion - the opposition critical: "Unreasonable"

On Tuesday, the regional board in Norrbotten decided how the care debt built up during the pandemic should be handled.

The proposal put forward by the Healthcare Party, the Moderates and the Center Party, which is the ruling majority, was that the regional board should hand over the responsibility to the regional director Anna-Stina Nordmark Nilsson to procure and order operations in areas such as orthopedics, surgery, urology, gynecology and ears, nose Neck for SEK 500 million.

The Social Democrats first tried to refer the matter back, but when that did not work, they chose to reserve themselves against the decision.

- It is not reasonable that a single person is allowed to dispose of such large sums freely.

It is important for the transparency and openness about how the Norrbotten Region uses tax funds and government grants that the public is also aware of how to choose to prioritize, the Social Democrats write in a press release.

Further criticism of the proposal

The Left Party also opposed the ruling majority's proposal and came up with its own additional request for a revised restoration plan.

- There, the Left Party argued that expanded surgery should primarily take place within its own operations and together with our Norrland regions, and that the policy should decide on any allocation to private care providers after impact descriptions for its own operations have been produced, says Glen Berggård, Opposition Council at Norrbotten region.

Opposition council: The county residents do not like private care

The Left Party was also rejected, after which they then reserved themselves in favor of their own claim.

But despite the rejections and the decision has now already been made for how the region should handle the care debt with the most canceled operations in all of Sweden, the opposition councilor Anders Öberg (S) believes that they have the people of Norrbotten with them in the criticism they are now presenting.

- We know that the people of Norrbotten do not like to have private care, they do not want there to be gains in welfare and this is a way to transfer our tax funds to private actors, he says.

In the video above, Opposition Councilor Anders Öberg (S) explains why the Social Democrats do not give up even though the decision has already been made.