January 15 in Swedish History
1981: The TV-series ”Babels hus”, based on a novel by PC Jersild with the same title, premieres on January 15 in 1981. The series questions the direction of the Swedish healthcare policy with ever-changing medical personnel and generally impersonal hospitals.

Primus Svensson (played by Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt) suffers a heart attack and is taken to the giant Enskede hospital. The wayward medical graduate Martina Bosson (Maria Hedborg) works at the department where Svensson is admitted. The series attracted a lot of attention in Swedish media and led to a debate about the state of Swedish health care. ”Babels hus” has been rerun several times, the latest in the spring of 2001.

The Swedish health care system has been changed, reformed and developed since and the Euro Health Consumer Index put Sweden at the top five or ten among European nations ever since it started to evaluate health care quality in 2005. Exception: Last year, when Sweden slipped down to 11th place among the 35 nations included in the report. The main reason for the loss of position is not necessarily the long waiting time, and accessibility that are indeed a negative factor but that other countries have improved more. The one area where Sweden scores high is a new sub-discipline called prevention. All other Nordic nations score higher than Sweden. If you're interested in the report, see Health Consumer Powerhouse: Euro Health Consumer Index