Lean in Sweden

Last week we had the privilege of entertaining a group of four guests from Sweden.

The team comprised of:

Catharina von Blixen Finecke (a senior politician) Vice chair of the regional federation of Skane and Chair of The Foundation for Employment Security Fund for Local and Regional Government in Sweden. Catharina arrived clutching a copy of 'Making Hospitals Work'

Bent Christensen (a senior clinician) Chief Executive of Skane University Hospital which is the amalgamation of two large university hospitals in Malmö and Lund that are well on their way down the path of their lean journey.

Isa Arbin and Birger Eriksson (senior lean coaches) from the Swedish government body that provide training to staff from these regional and local authorities. So they are, really, taking this lean stuff seriously.

We felt honoured that not only had these folks travelled from Sweden just to meet us, but that they had brought with them a very clear agenda, their focus on the continued implementation of lean in their regional authorities, (which includes hospitals in Sweden) as well as local authorities - and how could we possibly assist them on their mission. After many hours of friendly and humorous discussions we agreed that some form of a collaboration was the way forward.

Having, now, been approached by several regional authorities from mainland Europe, regarding one form of collaboration or another, this has left us wondering if lean is actually gaining more traction at a regional level in mainland Europe than in the UK?

May we take this opportunity to thank Catharina, Bent, Isa and Birger for their time invested in meeting with us and here’s to a long lasting and fruitful collaboration.