At the emergency room in Växjö, patients are met by an unmanned waiting room where they must choose a number slip themselves.

One type of number slip is for patients with chest pains and breathing problems, who then end up first in the queue, and the other for other patients. 

IVO believes that it can be directly life-threatening and writes: 

IVO would particularly like to point out that the biggest patient safety risk is for patients with respiratory problems who are referred to a waiting list.

If a patient with a free airway has a cue tag, that patient can be dead within minutes.

Today's triage times can thus be directly life-threatening.

Unmanned waiting room and long queues

IVO is also very critical of the fact that the waiting room is only monitored by cameras without sound.

In addition, the lead nurse, who must supervise the screen, leaves her place to perform other tasks during her shift. 

The waiting times to get help in the emergency room are long and often between one and two hours, and it is even more serious in combination with the unmanned waiting room, according to IVO.

"There is a risk that a patient in the waiting room becomes acutely ill and cannot alert the staff themselves, which can lead to complications and death,"

writes IVO.

The healthcare association agrees with the criticism from IVO, and they have worked in different ways for around a year to remedy the shortcomings.

But they think that work has gone far too slowly.

- It is good that there will be sharp criticism so that there will be quick interventions, says Karolina Fransson, chief safety representative at the Swedish Health Confederation.

Unique decision by IVO

Right now, IVO is conducting a review of staffing and care places in all regions of the country.

But in Växjö, the deficiencies in the emergency room's waiting room were judged to be so serious that they made a special decision about them.

- This was a matter that we broke out because we judged it to be important to remedy in the short term, says Adam Alfredsson, press manager at IVO, to SVT Småland.

He also says that so far it is only in Växjö that such an urgent decision has been made. 

If the deficiencies are not remedied before November 30, Region Kronoberg risks a fine of half a million.

Hear the Vårdförbundet's criticism in the clip above.