Sweden’s experience with shifting care out of hospitals

This RCN briefing expands on the Swedish experience with moving care closer to patient’s home and the integration agenda. It specifically outlines the integration models in Jönköping and Norrtälje, and offers some learning opportunities for England. This briefing also complements the RCN’s larger piece of work on Moving care to the community: an international perspective. 

Reforms in Sweden demonstrate the success that can be achieved with strong leadership, good integration, partnership working, reducing red tape and bureaucracy, and investing in the community workforce. England has much to learn from the experiences of Sweden, especially in promoting stable leadership, addressing gaps in service provision and tackling systemic funding and workforce issues.

The RCN believes that the priority should be given to better aligning the community workforce with system redesign. NHS Commissioning Boards should work closely with providers to iron out gaps in services and implement a whole system approach to address future health and social care service needs.

For further information, please email papa.ukintl.dept@rcn.org.uk