Conservatively Speaking : Sweden Health Board Says Elderly Can Be Given Lower Priority, But Not Illegal Migrants

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare has created guidelines for the priority of care for Chinese coronavirus patients that could see elderly Swedish citizens left to die in favour of illegal migrants.

Sweden’s elderly, along with Swedes with pre-existing health conditions, can be given lower priority than healthy young illegal migrants, according to the new guidelines.

Dr Thomas Lindén, of the National Board of Health and Welfare, said that health professionals should prioritise based on medical needs and not on the basis of citizenship, according to Nyheter Idag.

“The principles of prioritisation say that we should prioritise on the basis of medical needs and that all people have equal value. It means for someone who works in the healthcare industry that it is the people you have ahead of you, then you should not think about legal status, citizenship or so, but it is the medical need that should govern,” he said.

“Another question is what the regions do with people who may not have residence permits such as ‘paperless’ and others. It is important, partly for them to receive care but also for the protection of the infection to work. Both for those individuals and for society at large, it can be important that they receive care to stop the spread of infection,” Lindén added.

Prior reports had claimed that the Swedish government had begun detailing plans for a triage system in the event that emergency beds and intensive care units become overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.

The report came after former infection prevention physician Staffan Sylvan stated that the country’s medical system was completely unprepared in the event of a major viral outbreak.

“At present, our hospitals already have major problems in receiving and caring for urgently ill patients. Why this disinformation about our readiness?” he said late last month.

Some Swedish authorities have previously prioritised migrants over vulnerable Swedish groups, including in 2016 when various disability and dementia groups were evicted from a building in order to convert it to homes for asylum seekers.