Half of the country's regions have difficulty staffing care this summer

All of the country's 21 regions offer financial compensation for those who can imagine moving all or part of their summer vacation.

In more than half, 13 out of 21, the region states that the situation is more difficult than usual.

It shows a survey that SVT has done.

In Örebro, Värmland, Västernorrland and Uppsala, the compensation is SEK 20,000 or more per moved holiday week for certain staff.

In Jämtland / Härjedalen, midwives with childbirth skills are offered SEK 30,000 extra per week if the staff moves their holiday.

But Annika Hemström, emergency nurse in Uppsala, is not interested in any offers.

- I can not continue to sell my holiday.

It will be a system that will be the new normal for the employer.

What I feel worried about is that it will become customary in healthcare that you do not need four weeks' holiday, she says.

Criticism from the union

The union is also concerned about the situation at the University Hospital in Uppsala.

Ida Persson, board member of Vårdförbundet Uppsala, does not think it is possible to say that the staff give up their holiday weeks voluntarily - it is more about loyalty to patients and colleagues.

- I think it looks absolutely catastrophic, she says.

According to Sweden's Municipalities and Regions, the pandemic is one of the explanations for the difficult staffing situation.

But the biggest problem is a general shortage of staff.

- This means that you have to think about more long-term strategies so that we can avoid ending up in this situation all the time, says Jeanette Hedberg, chief negotiator at SKR.

She believes that work methods are needed that make the staff feel that they have the strength to work full time and want to stay in the profession.

"More air in the system"

But according to the Healthcare Association, too little is being done.

Emergency nurse Annika Hemström, who is also a board member of Vårdförbundet Uppsala, rather believes that summer staffing is a symptom of a major problem.

- The basic problem is that there is too little air in the system from the beginning.