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Living with diabetes in Sweden

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sz.bali

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Hi!

I'm going to study in Stockholm, Sweden and I have Type-1 diabetes so I'd like to find out more about what is the diabetic care like in there. Is there ayone who has some experience in the topic? If so I'd like to ask some questions either here or in privete message.
Thanks in advance :)
 
Just bumping up your message as I can't think of any Swedish members at present.
 
Not from Stockholm but the care is pretty much on par with the UK in my experience, all your insulin etc will be free and all you have to pay for is a smallish fee for appointments, though I have no idea if there's a difference for a foreigner. Get a Personnummer https://www.skatteverket.se/service...movingtosweden.4.7be5268414bea064694c40c.html asap and you'll then be able to easily have all of your health records(along with phone numbers, address, bank accounts etc) in one place that makes it nice and easy to store prescriptions from anywhere and fill them out from anywhere, meaning that anything healthcare related will put their records under that number and any pharmacy will have access to your prescriptions and who signed them etc upon identifying yourself to them, and you also don't have to wait for days to have someone sign a piece of paper for you, I've phoned in because I was running out and could pick up a new batch on the same day without ever setting foot in a hospital or clinic or whatever.
I was told that getting Libre sensors is a bit tricky if you're in Stockholm due to different criteria etc, but that may have changed now. I get mine from the very same place where I was diagnosed despite not living in the country anymore for free and then mailed over to my place here in London in a padded envelope, and my nurses have full knowledge of it and haven't complained about it.
 
Thanks, sound promising! I'm actually from Hungary and here I visit the doctor every 3 months and take lab tests to check HbA1c and other things. Is it somewhat similar in Sweden (or in the UK) in your experience, or how often do you visit your doctor and how does he/she monitor your health?
 
sz.bali said:
Thanks, sound promising! I'm actually from Hungary and here I visit the doctor every 3 months and take lab tests to check HbA1c and other things. Is it somewhat similar in Sweden (or in the UK) in your experience, or how often do you visit your doctor and how does he/she monitor your health?
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I used to do it every 6 months(I think, I left in 2013) but that might differ depending on where you are and how well you're doing, I honestly don't know what the standard is, if there is one. Where I used to do it, everything was done at the same place as well, I don't know if it would be the same in Stockholm as it is a much bigger city with many more patients and everything. Keep in mind though that like I said everything will be stored in your personal ID number and will be accessible by anyone treating you regardless of which hospital or whatever you visit, so your records will be very organised that way, including blood work and retinopathy images etc.
 
jlarsson said:
I used to do it every 6 months(I think, I left in 2013) but that might differ depending on where you are and how well you're doing, I honestly don't know what the standard is, if there is one. Where I used to do it, everything was done at the same place as well, I don't know if it would be the same in Stockholm as it is a much bigger city with many more patients and everything. Keep in mind though that like I said everything will be stored in your personal ID number and will be accessible by anyone treating you regardless of which hospital or whatever you visit, so your records will be very organised that way, including blood work and retinopathy images etc.
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I see. I imagine this trasparent system makes it really convinient for both the patients and doctors, I'm excited to find out how it works in person :D
 
Hi @sz.bali, and good articles @Robinredbreast - thanks there.

My own experience with type two in Stockholm is that, as in the second article - yes, care is centred around your diabetes nurse. And all medical centres I believe have one.

I thought my own nurse in my local medical centre was A-1 fantastic, and I still miss her (I have since returned to live in my home country of NZ). She was able to test my HBA1c from the centre, which was sooooo handy (especially as I found nowhere but nowhere uses butterfly needles in Sweden - a very important detail for a diabetic needing lots of blood tests who has delicate veins - we are talking OUCH and more ouch), and we had good decent talks about my treatment program and goals that we genuinely discussed together (a rare thing I find) - tack så mycket Gun! :).

I also got to see a panel of endocrinologists at a hospital, with a group of both type 1s and type 2s, which was a bit of a blast. (This was not free though. I paid. We all paid.) Paying in Sweden is not so horrible as one does get paid decently in Sweden. One can actually afford it. In NZ patients would be dropping like flies outside the hospitals under this system due to many folks having appalling wages that they can't live on.

The cost is not free, unless this has changed since I left in 2016. There used to be a system where you paid up to a certain amount every year, and then after that you were no longer charged but very minimally. Ordinary prescriptions are not subsidised, at all as far as I could figure, but on that upper limit payment thing that appointments are, but any diabetic exceeds that in no time, so my BG test strips were quickly covered for no payment and on a wonderful system where you filled in a little piece of paper and posted it in order to get your next big generous bunch of the decent German kind (accuchek) at regular intervals in the mail. I miss this so much I cannot say.

Medical care is based on a socialist democratic model, so medical centres are large depersonalised places where I don't know how, but manage to have the rudest receptionists on the planet. When I say depersonalised - I mean it. You are called out to for your appointment by your appointment place number - on a machine and by voice usually, and then are 'asked' for your personal ID number (referred to by @jlarsson). (And remember - you are actually paying - it is not free) and then for the money. No names. No hellos. No pleases, no thank you's. I do not miss this. And the ID number thing is repeated at various junctures. You get to sit with large groups of other numbers in the large waiting rooms. I do not miss this either.

Also, there is quite a wait time for an appointment with your actual 'house doctor'. I had several appointments where I had to wait one to two months. Forget about appointments over the summer, as one lives for summer in Sweden, which is short and brilliant. So no sensible doctor is actually available for patients from midsummer to the beginning of September when working life starts again. (Do they bring in temps from other non-nordic countries? I don't know. :).) I had a fantastic GP there too, apart from her ghastly nutritional advice which I am sad to say she actually gave (not to eat pork) (good grief!). But. Absolutely. The appointments are exactly 15 minutes long and not a minute more or less (this is Sweden! And my 'house doctor' was German - so of course they were exactly 15 minutes long!)

If you are not very punctual now you will learn to be! (I like that about Sweden actually. A lot.)

Also, the language issue. My experience, as a Swedish as a second language speaker with big gaps in my vocab, is that it is very difficult to have truly good medical appointments when you personally don't have the words for lots of medical things. Yes, it pays to find out and study up on the key words in Swedish before you go to your appointment. Ditto the pharmacy. In English - it is the same for them too. But you can have a good time as you both badly mispronounce the difficult medical words in each other's native language and try and work out what it is each is trying to say. In the alotted 15 minutes. (me and my medical professionals found diagrams to be indispensable!)
 
Thanks @AloeSvea for the detailed description!

Just a few follow up question. You mentioned that there is a considerable wait for an appointment with the 'hosue doctor' but do you (have to) visit him/her also concerning your diabetes or you just mentiond it in general as a heds up if I need to see him/her for any reason, and the majority of the diabetes issues are managed by the diabetes nurse as you mentioned? Or the two are the same thing, like you make an appointment with the doctor but in reality you will meet with the nurse?

It's good to hear that there are good doctors/nurses, could you perhaps recommend some by name or which health center(s) did you find good.

Do you happed to remember how much this annual limit is aproximately?
 
Kia ora and Hej @sz.bali.

The appointments with the doc are for explanations of blood lipid results from regular blood lipid testing, and other medical issues, some related to diabetes, some not. (The appointment with the pork comment was in relation to explaining my blood lipid results, which was wonderfully thorough. and you really need to use your Google translate for that one! The print out in Sweden for these is really exacting and thorough, and included the all-important vitamin D3 level!.) (mine got to barely defying deathly low after a relatively short time because I didn't know about D3 before then. It is not an issue in south pacific Aotearoa/NZ, usually - not getting enough sunlight. Our issue with light skin is making sure you don't get too much.)

Otherwise - yeah - all diabetes related things go to the diabetes nurse. My experience, during that endo panel experience, is that the diabetes nurses at hospitals are also fantastic in Sweden.

Actually, the medical system is super-localised. It all depends on where you will be living. You can only attend local medical centres. There is usually a choice of two close to where you live. You basically have to apply to them to attend them. I tried to be picky with who I got for my house doctor, at what became my local medical centre. (I asked for a recommendation from the marvellous diabetes nurse, in fact.) The first local medical centre I applied to was so obviously appalled by my asking for a particular kind of GP (kind, great communicator and female - oh I ask for so much! :)) that they never responded to my phone messages or letters (yes - snail mail! It still happens.) So I tried the other one in my area, and that had my fabulous diabetes nurse, so that was good.

Wait time for my diabetes nurse was 'only' two weeks.

Will just look for the annual limit, from memory I think it was SEK 1800 back in 2015.... Once you go past that you get a card (frikort) which you present to your medical appointments, for doctor, diabetes nurse, hospitals and then pay SEK 100, from memory. SEK 400 for an ambulance and Accident and Emergency care.! (Gallstone attack. We thought I was having a heart attack.)

Oh! And my standard health-advice to anyone going to live in Sweden - absolutely supplement with a high quality vitamin D3. I used a spray. Especially if you have dark eyes, dark hair, and absolutely if you have dark skin. I stopped using spf protected foundation make up on my face, and learnt to go barefaced in the sunnier months in order to get enough of the best available D3 - from the sun. There is a reason natives stand there facing the sun when it comes out with as much skin exposed as possible. And why they evolved light eyes, hair and skin! They need every bit of that life-saving sunlight as possible, reflecting that light as much as they can.

I don't know how long you are going to be living in Sweden, but learning to live with the dark is key. (What's not to love about snow and ice?!) There is a reason Swedes have gorgeous house lamps and love candles :). And yes - standing facing the sun whenever they can. And getting on planes to chase it, and.... well you get the picture.

Sweden has a very high level of knowledge (and recipes!) of low carb diets generally, due to the big LCHF 'movement' there, which is helpful if low-carbing is part of your diabetes treatment plan.

 
Oh and of course you are going to THE area in the world (ie Scandinavia) for Novo Nordisk! Hope you love it! :). I'm type two and even I got to see Novo Nordisk sponsors just about EVERYTHING daibetes in all the Scando countries.
 
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