M demands independent review of the crisis – dismissed
Published 13.20
Patients judged to be seriously ill had to wait over 90 minutes for an ambulance during last summer’s crisis, new statistics that Aftonbladet has seen show.
Now the Moderates rage against the regional government’s handling of the ambulance crisis.
– They have obscured how serious the crisis really was, says Axel Conradi (M), opposition regional councilor in Stockholm.
Last spring, Region took Stockholm over all ambulance operations under own auspices. Before the summer, the Healthcare Association warned of a staff shortage, while the region – according to its own report – assessed the situation as stable.
At the end of July last year, employees in the ambulance healthcare in the Stockholm Region sounded the alarm about the crisis. Between 10 and 20 ambulances stood idle in the region every day because there was a lack of staff and during one evening there was only one ambulance in operation at the station in the City.
But the people of Stockholm were not affected by the crisis, according to Region Stockholm.
According to the evaluation made by the regional management last autumn, the response times for the most serious alarms, the priority 1 alarms, were not affected by the staff shortage. As in previous summers, the median value was around 13 minutes – the result of the entire summer.
But new, more detailed figures which Aftonbladet took notice of shows that the response time for the prio 1 patients who had to wait the longest skyrocketed during the worst week of the crisis – to over 90 minutes.
“Got pissed off”
During the summer of 2024, the response time was just under 70 minutes over six weeks. In the summer of 2025, it only happened for one week – in week 35.
Axel Conradi, opposition regional councilor reacts strongly to the new information.
– I was pissed off when I saw this. They have said that the most seriously ill patients were not affected. Now your review shows that some of them had to wait an hour and a half for an ambulance. It is to bring Stockholmers behind the scenes, he says.
In the report, the regional management has chosen to look at the median value for calls throughout the summer without going into individual weeks. Something Conradi, like paramedics, questions.
– That measure is smeared on the total. It does not help at all for the patients who suffered a cardiac arrest and have to wait for an hour and a half. It is in those cases that the risk to the patients is most apparent.
That’s how long Stockholmers had to wait for an ambulance during the crisis week
The response time for the ambulance throughout the summer was approximately 13 minutes, which is in line with previous summers.
The figures show four median values for ambulance response times, P50, P90, P95 and P99. The numbers given are minutes.
In week 30, when the crisis became news in the media, the response times looked like this:
Number of calls: 1171.
P50: 13.5 minutes. In 50 percent of the cases, the calls were faster than 13.6 minutes and 50 percent were slower. 585 patients had to wait longer.
P90: 35 minutes. In 90 percent of the cases, the calls were faster than 35 minutes and 10 percent were slower. 117 patients had to wait longer.
P95: 52 minutes. In 95 percent of the cases, calls were faster than 52 minutes and 5 percent were slower. 65 patients had to wait longer.
P99: 91 minutes. In 99 percent of the cases, the calls were faster than 91 minutes and 1 percent were slower. 13 patients had to wait longer.
He believes that this shows why an independent review should have been carried out, which the opposition demanded in connection with the regional board deciding that the summer’s crisis should be evaluated.
A demand he now repeats.
– Now the board must put all the cards on the table and not hide anything from Stockholmers, says Axel Conradi.
“Ideological conviction before patients”
Ambulance operations were previously run by the region and two private actors, Falck and Samariten. In the spring of 2025, the region took over the entire ambulance operation under its own auspices. In connection with that, several employees left the ambulance. The region also lowered starting salaries for ambulance nurses, which made it difficult to recruit new staff, according to the Vårdförbundet.
In its report, the region admits that the change was made too soon in the summer.
Ahead of this summer, paramedics have raised the alarm about a continuing staffing crisis. The region has assumed that it has better planning this year and has taken a number of measures. Among other things, ambulance personnel are flown in from Finland and managers and administrative staff are called to the ambulances. Extra compensation is also offered to those who take extra passes.
But with an investigation that has not gone in depth, the risk is that the correct conclusions have not been drawn from last summer’s crisis, says Conradi.
– Now we are soon entering the most demanding summer weeks and mass text messages are being sent out about vacancies and cars that are standing still. If last summer’s crisis happens again this year, it will be Aida Hadzialic’s responsibility.
The background to last year’s crisis was that during the spring the region took back all ambulance medical care under its own auspices and in connection with that lost staff.
– They put ideological conviction before patients to receive care on time. I see this as a good receipt after a few years of S-rule. It won’t be good.
S-top: No more investigations are needed
Aftonbladet has applied for finance regional councilor Aida Hadzialic (S), who is the most politically responsible person in the regional board – which decided on the internal evaluation – via the Social Democrats’ press service.
There, they refer instead to Robert Johansson (S), personnel regional councilor in Region Stockholm, even though the questions do not concern the ambulance staff. But according to the press service, it is his area of responsibility.
“These are important data that we need to take a closer look at, ambulance medical care is one of our most prioritized activities. The method and measurements used in the evaluation report are standard for measuring ambulance medical care in Sweden. It is not good that it may have taken a long time in individual cases. It may be due to external obstacles to progress,” he writes in a comment to Aftonbladet.
He also says that more resources have been added to the ambulance service – and dismisses the demand for a new review.
“We have added resources to meet the growing need for care and the ambulance care that has been underfunded. What is needed now is not more investigations – but continued investments. We recently provided SEK 56 million extra for, among other things, heightened preparedness, strengthened IT infrastructure and induction for new employees. We are also prepared to add more resources going forward in dialogue with management, staff and unions.”
