This article gives an account of major Swedish reform in the area of old-age care, whereby the boundaries between regional and local areas of responsibility for care of the elderly were displaced. By using a variety of control methods, central government was able to structure and steer the old-age implementation networks. The consequences of this central steering were different on different administrative levels: for the county councils, the reform has resulted in a specialisation for the core areas of primary health care and hospital treatment, whereas the municipalities have had to diversity their areas of activity.
This article gives an account of major Swedish reform in the area of old-age care, whereby the boundaries between regional and local areas of responsibility for care of the elderly were displaced. By using a variety of control methods, central government was able to structure and steer the old-age implementation networks. The consequences of this central steering were different on different administrative levels: for the county councils, the reform has resulted in a specialisation for the core areas of primary health care and hospital treatment, whereas the municipalities have had to diversity their areas of activity.
Subject terms:
hospitals, interagency cooperation, local government, long term care, older people, organisational structure, primary care, social policy, treatment, therapy and treatment, central government, health care;