Healthcare staff feel the strain after 13 billion kronor budget cuts

Sweden's regions, responsible for health care around the country, have been tightening their belts, cutting more than SEK 13 billion from their budgets over the past few years, according to a survey by Swedish Radio News.

Most regions have tried to save money by hiring fewer agency or temp workers, particularly nurses, but many regions have also cut actual jobs, often in administration.

"So now we’re the porters, running patients to X‑ray or to other tests," says assistant nurse Maja Hellberg in Katrineholm, where a position as hospital porter vanished in the cuts.