“Health indicators for the population are good—life expectancy and cancer and heart attack survival rates are among the highest in Europe according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures from 2017, and the country also came in the top five in the Lancet’s most recent Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

“But most Swedes will agree that, in recent years, concerns over whether provision of that care is faltering are being raised on a more regular basis.

“In the run-up to the elections, local media reported on concerns about waiting times, care continuity, under-capacity, and severe staff shortages.

“According to official data, there are nursing shortages in 80% of the health-care sector. The daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet said that although the Swedish population has grown by 13% since the end of the 1990s, hospital bed numbers have fallen 30% over the same period. Data from the OECD show that Sweden’s hospital beds shortage is the worst in Europe, with 2·4 available beds per 1000 people in 2015.”

Source: Holt, Ed. Health in Sweden: a political issue. Lancet. 2018 Oct 6;392(10154):1184-1185. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32459-0.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30319101