We got a great piece of feedback this morning, a really important piece of advice and information. One of our community members mentioned on Facebook that it was really important to make the distinction between Barnvårdcentral (BVC) and when you need to take your child to the Dr but not to the emergency room. Confused yet?
Basically, BVC is there to monitor the growth (height and weight) and development of children from birth until 6 years of age and they control the vaccine programme in Sweden. Sometimes, your child needs more than just a regular check up, but it’s not always an emergency. When little bear was about 6 months old we realised that she might have an allergy to egg. We called the BVC and they recommended that we take her to a barnläkare (paediatrician) for allergy testing. This meant that we went to a separate paediatric clinic.
Paediatricians in Sweden usually have a separate practice from the BVC but sometimes they work as a co-op. The best thing to do is ask the BVC for advice when you first attend.
***edit Tues 21st November 2017
We just recorded a brilliant episode of the Littlebearabroad podcast with Dr James about the hierarchy of the Swedish healthcare system for kids and touched on BUMM clinics (Barn och ungdomsmedicinksa mottagningar). You can find a list of Stockholm läns BUMM clinics and the podcast episode, here.