The announcement that the intensive care units in Ljungby will be closed during the summer has stirred up many emotions among the municipality’s citizens. Now the municipal politicians have taken the initiative for a demonstration to be held on Thursday.
The purpose of the demonstration is to show support for keeping Ljungby as an emergency hospital.
Would you have held this demonstration even if the announcement about IVA had not come?
– No I do not think so. This will be a situation where we as municipal politicians show that we really want there to be two emergency hospitals in Kronoberg, says Anne Karlsson (S), opposition councilor in Ljungby.
Eriksson (M): “Strong agreement across all party lines that we should have two emergency hospitals”
But according to Ida Eriksson (M), who is chairman of the health care committee, there is nothing to indicate that Ljungby hospital should be closed down as an emergency hospital.
– There is a very clear and strong agreement across all party lines that we should have two emergency hospitals in our county and there are absolutely no decisions that point to anything else, she tells SVT Småland.
According to Ida Eriksson, the decision to close the IVA places is solely linked to the fact that it was not possible to recruit staff for IVA in Ljungby during the holiday periods.
But Björn Gullander (V), another of the local politicians in Ljungby who is behind the demonstration, is doubtful about Ida Eriksson’s promises.
– More and more of us are at this age that we need care and when the fight for resources intensifies, we are afraid that Ljungby will be the loser, he says to SVT Småland.
