The AIMS commentary series on Swedish Health Care in Transition continues as author Johan Hjertqvist explores the rapid transition in the style and format of health care being experienced in the Stockholm metropolitan area. The new, competition-based model of public healthcare is about to hit the emergency rooms and operating theatres in that city. Seven emergency hospitals in the Stockholm region serve close to two million people. Since 1999, one of them has been privately owned. Last year, two hospitals turned themselves into publicly owned companies with formal business structures, financial statements, and a board of directors. At least two of the remaining ones plan to do the same in 2002.
