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‘Send Swedes to Latvia for operations’

The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga is planning to start a Swedish-owned hospital in the Latvian capital in order to raise the standards of the country's hospitals and to remove some of the burden from the Swedish healthcare system.

Published: 20 January 2010 14:13 CET

Gunnar Ljungdahl, Senior Vice President of the Stockholm school’s majority-owned Riga offshoot, believes more education is needed when it comes to the administration of Latvian hospitals and said the Swedish system could function as a benchmark.

“The Latvian system has not improved since the Soviet Union; we could help them to work more effectively,” he told The Local.

The Stockholm School of Economics, a business school ranked 15th in Europe by the Financial Times, has an executive master programme concentrating on health care, Ljungdahl explained.

“Doctors used to be the ones running hospitals but this has changed. You can be a great doctor, but it doesn’t mean you’re skilled at administration.”

Apart from aiding Latvia’s healthcare sector, Ljungdahl hopes to speed up queue times for Swedish patients waiting in line for operations.

“The queues are long, and this could be a good alternative”.

“People might feel worried about leaving their country for an operation, but if their county council is involved they might feel more secure,” he said.

The Latvian ministry of health has now sent a letter to Swedish social minister Göran Hägglund with a proposal for co-operation.

According to Ljungdahl, Swedish health companies and county councils will be able to invest in the project.

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Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

The government struck the deal with the Socialist Left Party, the Red Green Alliance, the Social Liberal Party and the Alternative party, last week with the formal announcement made on Monday

“In terms of health, there is no evidence for the current week limit, nor is there anything to suggest that there will be significantly more or later abortions by moving the week limit,” Sophie Løhde, Denmark’s Minister of the Interior and Health, said in a press release announcing the deal.

The move follows the recommendations of Denmark’s Ethics Council, which in September 2023 proposed raising the term limit, pointing out that Denmark had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Western Europe.

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Under the deal, the seven parties, together with the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, have also entered into an agreement to replace the five regional abortion bodies with a new national abortion board, which will be based in Aarhus.

From July 1st, 2025, this new board will be able to grant permission for abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy if there are special considerations to take into account.

The parties have also agreed to grant 15-17-year-olds the right to have an abortion without parental consent or permission from the abortion board.

Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for Digitalization and Equality, said in the press release that this followed logically from the age of sexual consent, which is 15 years old in Denmark.

“Choosing whether to have an abortion is a difficult situation, and I hope that young women would get the support of their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother,” she said.

The bill will be tabled in parliament over the coming year with the changes then coming into force on June 1st, 2025.

The right to free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973.

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