TABLE 2.

Commission's recommendations for elderly care ^a

Staffing levels	The status and appeal of elderly care work must increase. Sweden must clarify what an appropriate staffing level is for residential care and caring for patients with dementia b
	Employers must facilitate true leadership in residential care and ensure that middle managers are not responsible for excessively large workforces
Employment security and employees paid by the hour	Employment security should increase
	The proportion of the workforce made up of employees paid by the hour should decrease
Contact between care providers and people receiving care	People receiving care should see the same healthcare staff over time
	All residential care should have access to a nurse 24/7 to guarantee high medical expertise when residents need intravenous hydration and oxygen and when staff with lower medical competence need supervision and guidance
Competence	The (Swedish) language skills of healthcare staff involved in caring for older people c should improve

^a Mostly based on the first wave of the pandemic (spring 2020).

^b Low staffing levels caused problems such as difficulties to follow COVID‐19 hygiene recommendations because of high workload. Low staffing levels also hindered staff from informing themselves about the pandemic and relevant measures, such as time to read relevant emails.

^c In the three largest cities in Sweden (Stockholm. Gothenburg, Malmö), 56% of the staff in elderly care did not have Swedish as their primary language. In the rest of the country, the corresponding percentage was 19%.