Summary of SOU 2020:80 Elderly care during the pandemic
Published
In the interim report Elderly care during the pandemic, the Corona Commission reports on what it considers to be the most important reasons for the large spread of infection and the high death rates among the elderly in Sweden.
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Known structural deficiencies
The Commission believes that care for the elderly was unprepared and ill-equipped when the pandemic struck. This was due to structural defects which were known before the virus outbreak. The current government and previous governments bear the ultimate responsibility for these shortcomings. The government should have taken the necessary initiatives to ensure that elderly care is better equipped for a crisis of this kind.
The strategy did not protect the elderly
The strategy to protect the elderly has, according to the Commission, failed. According to the Commission, the structural shortcomings in the preparedness of elderly care are due in part to:
- a fragmented organization,
- a need for higher staffing, increased skills, and reasonable working conditions,
- an insufficient regulatory framework,
- barriers to municipalities hiring doctors and accessing medical equipment; and
- late and sometimes insufficient decisions and measures.
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