Not too long after their article about biogas (see this post), BBC News Online today has another article about Sweden – this time about healthcare and how the Swedish model might be one we could aspire to in the UK – you can read the article here. As ever, the content is somewhat simplified to make it understandable for a UK audience, but the point is clear: here is a state run healthcare system that is designed to work to provide a universal and good quality service, exactly what the NHS is supposed to do.
The statistic that an average Swedish hospital stay is 4.4 days, and the UK is 6 days, is interesting. Further, Sweden has the lowest cancer moratlity rates in the western world.
[Updated – 28.11.2005]
A member of the Swedish Riksdagen, Anders Ygeman, has today launched a website B√?st i v√?rlden that will list all the things that Sweden is good at… Even though it’s in Swedish I can at least decipher that he’s quite happy with the BBC giving Swedish healthcare the thumbs up. I’ll link to his site too… Now my site has also been linked from B√?st i v√?rlden. Long may my positive contributions to Swedish politics continue!
