Self-referral

If you plan on financing your surgery yourself, you can submit a self-referral today. We will assess it and get back to you within one working day.

In order to receive funding from your home region for weight loss surgery, you must first be approved for surgery in that region. This is usually done through your general practitioner, who will refer you to a specialised weight loss unit, which in turn assesses whether or not you meet the criteria for a procedure. If you have been approved for surgery, but the waiting time between approval and surgery date exceeds 90 days, you have the right to invoke the ‘guarantee of care’, which means you can be referred to another healthcare provider with shorter waiting times. In most cases, however, you cannot choose which clinic or centre you will be admitted to in this case.

According to the Swedish Patient Act (Patientlagen) you, as a patient, have the right to seek so-called ‘outpatient care’ throughout the country. Outpatient care refers to care where you are not required to be admitted to a clinic or hospital, i.e, examinations and treatments which allow you to return home the same day that the procedure or examination is performed. Examples of outpatient care include surgery for umbilical hernias or inguinal hernias, gastroscopy, or colonoscopy. For this type of care, you can submit a self-referral to a private healthcare provider with a regional agreement, regardless of where in the country you reside.

When it comes to inpatient care, which requires admission to a hospital or clinic, you need to advance payment approval from your region of residence. If your ‘home region’ cannot provide the inpatient care you are seeking, for example, due to long waiting times, you have the right to be referred to a specialist in another region who can perform the care you need. However, you cannot submit a self-referral for publicly funded inpatient care; you must first gain approval from your region, and then be referred to us.

You can always submit a self-referral for care that you finance yourself, regardless if this care is inpatient or outpatient.

Your home region covers the cost of outpatient specialist care (see above), regardless of where in the country you seek care. This also applies if you seek care by a self-referral, i.e, without first being referred by another doctor or general practitioner. If your region has not been able to meet the ‘guarantee of care’ (vårdgaranti), they are also required to cover travel and accommodation expenses in the location where you have sought specialist care. If you have been referred to us for inpatient care (see above), your home region covers the cost of care, travel, and accommodation.

The ‘guarantee of care’, or ‘vårdgarantin’, means that you as a patient should receive care within a certain period of time from when you initiate contact with a healthcare provider. Amongst other things, this ensures that you should not have to wait more than 90 days to see a specialist for assessment, nor should you wait more than 90 days from the day of approval to the day of receiving the care you need (surgery or otherwise). If you do not receive care within 90 days, your healthcare provider should help you receive care at a facility with a shorter waiting list. This may mean that you receive a referral for care in a different region than in your region of residence.

If you are waiting for care or if you are unsure of the process, we recommend that you contact the clinic which handles your case and inquire about the guarantee of care. Some regions also have a care guarantee office or care coordinators, who can provide you with information about your options and rights. Telephone numbers and other means of contact are listed at www.1177.se.