Sweden

In April of 2018, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) has published a report “Screening for severe combined immune deficiency”, which contains recommendation and assessment basis for the national combined immunodeficiency screening program (SCID).

On the 5th of April of 2018, Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefit Agency (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket, TLV) has published a positive decision for inclusion of VORTEX nozzle (spare part for VORTEX inhalation container) into the list of pharmaceutical benefits due to lower price of 45.42 SEK per product versus comparators.

On the 16th of April, 2018, the new classification of diagnosis codes (ICD-10-SE) was released by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen). Seventeen new diagnosis codes were added in 2018.

In February of 2018, Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefit Agency (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket, TLV) has published a number of consumable medical devices, which were excluded from the list of pharmaceutical benefits per manufacturers’ request.

At the beginning of March, 2018, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialtyrelsen) has published the instruction with the amendments for coding of infected wounds. Several clarifications to the use of these diagnosis codes were implemented.

On the 22nd of March, 2018, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialtyrelsen) has published a preliminary version of National guidelines for endometriosis care. Socialtyrelsen is opened for comments and suggestions until the 31st of May, 2018.

At the end of January, 2018, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialtyrelsen) has published updated Guidelines for management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The few recommendations on drug treatment and management of COPD were updated.

According to the recommendation of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), hospitals and clinics should not offer screening for prostate cancer with PSA tests with or without other supplementary tests before tissue sampling. The recommendation is based on that the benefit of screening for prostate cancer with PSA tests does not outweigh the negative effects on a population level.

Eight new medical procedure codes for obstetric, urological, gynecological and vascular interventions will be added to the Swedish Classification of non-surgical medical interventions (KMÅ) in 2018.

Eight new surgical procedure codes for otorhinolaryngologic, colorectal and orthopedic interventions will be added to the Swedish Classification of surgical interventions (KKÅ) in 2018.

Researchers evaluated care process, access, administrative efficiency, equity and health care outcomes in 11 countries on the basis of published health care statistics for 72 indicators. The best overall performers among European countries were the UK (ranked 1st), the Netherlands (3rd), Norway (4th), Sweden and Switzerland (6th). Germany (8th) and France (10th) were low in the ranking.

The Government has given to the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) to see how much of the highly specialized care could be coordinated at the national level. The proposed model will be tested in autumn 2017 in two areas: the nervous system diseases and women's health and childbirth. These areas will be surveyed to see which individual care measures would be improved.