For many years, there has been a shortage of general practitioners in primary care, also called district doctors.

Exactly how big the shortage is is difficult to know as the regions calculate in different ways.

When SVT Nyheter asked the regions about vacant positions, several could not answer either.

Great shortage on Gotland

However, some could.

Including Region Gotland, which has calculated how many full-time jobs they need for doctors to have a reasonable workload.

The answer was then another 25. Today, the existing district doctors make up 15 full-time positions.

According to Region Gotland's primary care manager Lena Bäckström, the biggest problem is that it is difficult to recruit.

- The specialists in general medicine are too few and it makes it difficult for us to be on an island because you can not commute then.

Here we need to make sure that it becomes attractive to work here, she says.

50s are missing in Jönköping

The Jönköping region has made a similar calculation.

They have then started from a newly set goal of 1,500 patients per district doctor and come to the conclusion that there is a lack of 54 full-time employees, which corresponds to a shortfall of 30 percent.

- It is a long-term goal that we work with, says Rachel De Basso (S), who is chairman of the health and medical care committee in the Jönköping region.

Multi-million investment will solve problems

To address the shortage of doctors in primary care, Rachel De Basso (S) says that the region has added SEK 50 million over the past two years and that next year there will be an additional SEK 25 million.

- This is a historic budget increase, she says.

Other regions that state for SVT Nyheter that they have a large proportion of vacancies are Västernorrland which answered 48 percent, region Gävleborg which answered 42 percent and region Värmland which answered 40 percent.

The Dalarna region, Kronoberg and Jämtland Härjedalen have all responded 36 percent.

Here, however, it is important to remember that the figures are not comparable as the regions calculate in different ways.