Crazy cats grin at visitors among pumpkins and bats. The stately old military hospital where Stockholm's regional politicians stay has been newly renovated right down to the gilded tassels in the iron fence, but the Halloween decorations that spread out on the grand staircase do not escape anyone.
- My son was at work the other day and he was very pleased, says Carl-Johan Schiller (KD) and steps out onto the stairs to take pictures.
When the party, which got to keep its 7 percent in the regional election, was unexpectedly offered the heavy post of health and medical care regional council, it was described as a "bone of meat". The Social Democrats needed KD to put together a cross-bloc government.
What is at the top of the agenda now?
- To shorten queues, replies Carl-Johan Schiller lightning fast.
This concerns, for example, child and youth psychiatry, Bup, and waiting times in the emergency department.
The new coalition consists of the Social Democrats and the four smallest parties – the Green Party, the Center Party and the Liberals. The Moderates, the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats are left out.
The collaboration has resulted in a political platform that is summarized in a 37-page document, which includes proposals for stronger primary care.
Not least, it should be easier for Stockholmers to get a regular doctor. Therefore, the working environment must be improved, so that more people are able to work full time. Ultimately, it is a question of resources, says Schiller.
- It is the task of politics to ensure that each health center can hire more colleagues so that we can reach the goal of 1,100 patients per doctor. Sweden has a lot to learn from neighboring countries, says Carl-Johan Schiller.
How then?
- Both Norway and Denmark have succeeded better in expanding primary care, and they have pushed through a nationalization of care, he says.
More unexpectedly, the management of care must be reviewed. This concerns, among other things, the so-called client-executor organization, where the health and medical care board orders care as if on an internal market.
Carl-Johan Schiller says - somewhat surprisingly - that it is well known that the politicians in the health and medical care board and the primary care board have become toothless and have difficulty getting their decisions through.
- A telling example is that Stockholm's regional politicians can no longer start a healthcare centre, says Carl-Johan Schiller.
KD has recently put questions to the administration about this very thing.
- We have received an answer that there is a lack of a routine for starting health centers, because the private actors do that.
Region Stockholm has not opened any new care centers under its own auspices since the free choice of care was introduced in 2008, as DN previously reported.
The Christian Democrats believe that the region has become so passive after the introduction of the law on freedom of choice (LOV) that the region does not know what to do.
- I think that, as a bourgeois politician, is completely wrong, that you have leaned too far back and left the responsibility to private actors. If most receptions start in the inner city and a care center is needed in an area that is socio-economically vulnerable, then we as the principal must be able to start one in order to be able to offer everyone equal care, says Carl-Johan Schiller.
The party now believes that the region must switch gears so that the important skills are not lost.
Carl-Johan Schiller is a former municipal councilor in Lidingö. As a regional politician, however, he wants to abolish his role.
- Yes, that's right. It must be said that it is unique that a region welcomes an increased state element, says Schiller.
The extended state responsibility applies to, among other things, the supply of skills, medicines, vaccinations and airborne ambulance transport, which was highlighted by a state investigation last year. However, KD has not received any hearing in the Riksdag for its heart issue of running out the rope and scrapping the regions.
According to information to DN, the view of private and public was the major stumbling block in the negotiations between the parties. But the contradiction has been buried through a compromise: During the term of office, no new major decisions must be made "that significantly affect the balance between the amount of private and public health care".
- This means that no decisions about taking back operations under public auspices must be made. But there will also not be a decision to procure another emergency hospital, for example, says Carl-Johan Schiller.
Stockholm's emergency hospital has, on the contrary, been decorporated, and the ambulance service, for example, has been taken back under its own auspices. No restorers are current.
- There will be no big swings in any direction, says Carl-Johan Schiller.
