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‘The situation is serious’: Stockholm health chief calls for private sector help

Stockholm's health authorities have made a new call for help, asking for private healthcare companies to free up staff to help solve a severe shortage in intensive care places.

Published: 12 December 2020 14:45 CET
'The situation is serious': Stockholm health chief calls for private sector help
Doctors and nurses have already been transferred from Astrid Lindgren's Children's hospital. Photo: Holger Ellgaard/Wikipedia Commons
Stockholm's health authorities have made a new call for help, asking for private healthcare companies to free up staff to help solve a severe shortage in intensive care places. 
 
“The situation is serious and we need help,” Björn Eriksson, the  region's health chief, told Sweden's TT newswire. “Around a third of healthcare in Stockholm is carried out in the private sector. It makes sense for them also to take responsibility.” 
 
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Eriksson made headlines internationally on Wednesday when he warned that the region's intensive care units were at 99 percent capacity. 
 
On Friday he called the region's biggest private healthcare providers to a meeting, hoping to convince them to release staff to help out in the city's intensive care wards. 
 
“Give them time off and let them come and work for us,” he said. 
 
Even though there are currently only 80-90 coronavirus patients being treated in intensive care in Stockholm compared to a peak of 230 in the spring, there are many more patients with other conditions needing emergency treatment. 
 
“What we have now that we didn't have in the spring is that there are many people seeking other types of acute care. That went down completely for several weeks in the spring,” he said. 
 
Eriksson said that private healthcare providers had responded positively to his call, but he said it was still unclear how much the region might have to pay for the additional staff. 
 
“We are going to need as many as possible, so of course it's going to be pricey for us,” he said. “At first it's the region which pays the cost, but all extra costs connected to covid-19 will later on be reimbursed by the state.” 
 
On Friday evening Astrid Lindgren's children's hospital said it was seconding 120 medical staff to Karolinska University Hospital to support Covid care. 
 

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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