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HEALTH

‘Too many doctors can’t speak Swedish’

Doctors in Sweden from other European Union countries don’t speak Swedish well enough, according to patients and other healthcare personnel.

More than half of Sweden’s county councils, which are responsible for running the country’s healthcare system, report problems with doctors who lack sufficient command of the Swedish language.

According to a study by Sveriges Television, complaints about the Swedish language skills of doctors from other EU countries have come from both their Swedish colleagues and patients.

When Reino Pönni visited a local clinic recently to have doctors examine a pain in his foot, he was sent home with a prescription for heavy sedatives because of miscommunication with the doctor.

“This is bad. It shows that if you can’t master the language it can, in the worst case, endanger patient safety,” said Thomas Tegenfeldt of the authorization and patient safety division of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), upon viewing the Sveriges Television report.

Some claim that Socialstyrelsen is to blame for the prevalence of doctors with poor language skills in the Swedish healthcare system because doctors from other EU countries don’t need to take a language test in order to receive a licence to practice in Sweden.

However, officials at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) say the county councils are at fault for hiring doctors who can’t speak Swedish.

HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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