National guidelines

It is a fact that society’s resources are insufficient to carry out, at the same time, all the measures required within social services and health and medical care. For this reason, decision-makers such as politicians and agency chief executives must take a standpoint as to how the resources shall be distributed within the different areas.

National guidelines are a support for the decision-makers, helping them to allocate the resources in accordance with the needs of the population so that they achieve the maximum possible benefit. The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare bases its decision to draw up guidelines on the fact that there is a great demand for direction and guidance in the sectors of medical care and social services.

The guidelines, which are drawn up on the basis of current research and the lessons of experience, demonstrate the utility and also the risks of different measures adopted within these fields. The National Board of Health and Welfare thereby intends to strengthen the prospects of people in Sweden receiving medical care and social services of a uniformly high standard.

We will publish summaries for the guidelines on this page.

How the guidelines may be used

It is the county councils (landsting), the regions and the municipalities that make decisions concerning public health and medical care, dental care and social services. Politicians, senior executives and managers as well as the personnel in medical care and social services can use the guidelines as support for different decisions.

In the guidelines, the National Board of Health and Welfare recommends that health and medical care and social services should invest more resources within certain areas than in others. The particular conditions and interventions that have a high ranking are ones where more resources should be invested whereas fewer or no resources should be invested in the conditions and interventions that have a low ranking.

The guidelines may be used as a support for

• decisions on resource allocation within and between different groups and operations
• decisions about operational planning
• decisions about organisation of the different activities
• decisions on regional and local medical care programmes
• individual decisions made by e.g. doctors, case officers within social services or dentists in the consultations with the patients or users.

Read more about the national guidelines in our folder: