The then director of health and medical care Ann Söderström states that money was not the problem during the pandemic, but the availability of tests and more specifically reagents - the content of the test that reacts to a specific virus.
- What stopped us was never the money but rather that there was a shortage of reagents.
I think we could have limited the infection, especially in nursing homes, if we had more complete kits, says Ann Söderström.
Why was this missing?
- We tried to get more to Sweden, but it did not exist then and this is not something you can have in stock because it is specific to the virus.
Then one can wonder if we could have procured in another way but we did not succeed better and that led to us having a limited opportunity for sampling.
Västra Götaland began testing healthcare staff during week seven in 2020, as some of the first in the country.
Broad testing for the public started week 23 2020, also among the first in the country.
Work between large regions and FHM
Johnny Magnusson (M), as the most responsible politician in the Västra Götaland region, thinks the question is difficult about how one could have been more efficient.
- We have to discuss what our agreements look like, we can write them so that they are ready to scale up the delivery.
He states that such work is now underway between the large regions and the Public Health Agency.
- This has shown that Europe must be able to stand on its own two feet much better and I think we have probably learned that.