Reducing the number of care places in hospitals seems to increase the risk of more patients dying. That is the conclusion drawn by researchers who looked at the development in the country’s regions.
In 2019, Sweden had the lowest number of care places per capita in the EU – 2.1 places per 1,000 inhabitants. The average is 5.4. The figure is partly explained by the fact that much rehabilitation and care is provided outside hospitals.
– The reductions in care places we have made have been bad. We have to think about how we use healthcare resources – people die when we use too little healthcare, says Jonathan Siverskog at the Center for Health Economics Research at Uppsala University and one of the researchers behind the study.
Although both mortality and the number of care places have decreased in all regions over the past 20 years, mortality has not decreased as much in the regions that made the greatest reductions.
In the study, as published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, the researchers looked at the development in Sweden between 2001 and 2019. They compared each region with itself over time.
In the player above: Researcher Jonathan Siverskog comments on the study in more detail.