Swedish students who received the lowest results on the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test go abroad to study to become doctors. After obtaining their medical license automatically approved in Sweden, several of these doctors are reported as potentially being a danger to patients. Following a review, work has now begun to investigate possible measures.
Universities from Eastern and Central Europe with English-language medical programs market themselves to Swedish students at a fair in Stockholm. One university says it costs around 125,000 Swedish kronor per academic year in tuition fees. Some universities require approved grades in natural science subjects from high school, while others use entrance exams.
I get really upset. That they almost promise a place in a medical program that we know is a fairly demanding education – without ensuring that this individual has the right prerequisites. That we put our patients here in Sweden and also our healthcare facilities and all colleagues in very difficult situations.
An online test with 80 multiple-choice questions is used as an entrance exam by some. Several universities contacted by reporters posing as students without high school biology and chemistry said it was not a problem. An international study agency marketing medical programs in various countries offered a package deal including questions and answers for the entrance exam for about 28,000 Swedish kronor.
The agency guarantees a place in a medical program regardless of grades or high school program. The agency later claimed, when contacted, that they only provide study questions that the student must learn the answers to themselves, and the company can help with that. According to Sveriges Radio Nyheter, Emilie Hultberg, chair of the Swedish Medical Association's Education and Research Council, described getting really upset that places are promised without ensuring prerequisites, putting patients and healthcare in difficult situations.
We have a Swedish government that is responsible and must contact the governments in the countries where these universities operate.
She added, according to Sveriges Radio Nyheter, that the Swedish government must contact governments in the countries where these universities operate. Which specific universities and countries are involved, how many doctors have been reported as dangerous and what incidents occurred, and what specific measures are being considered with what timeline remain unknown.