Other Wartime medical care: what lies ahead and how can we increase our capability before and during war?- sharing experiences between Sweden and Ukraine

About the day:

In the event of war, there will be a need to increase our healthcare capacity. To prepare for this, we need to build structures and methods that allow for capacity to be scaled up. Wartime medical capability currently exists among medics and combat medics in the Swedish Armed Forces, to some extent at hospitals, and to a lesser extent in civil society and non-hospital medical care, in primary care, home healthcare and municipal healthcare. To some extent, everyone needs to be prepared to scale up.

There are currently several educational initiatives and training related to wartime medicine. Still, we know that we cannot meet the needs of a war by only training people in advance. There will also be a need to provide training during an ongoing war, should such a situation arise. 

Through an exchange of experience with Ukrainian medics, we want to encourage conversations about education and training in wartime and as part of preparedness, as well as inspire initiatives for new training structures and methods, and to further development of existing ones, to make them fit for wartime needs.

If you would like to find out more about similar experience sharing session between Swedes and Ukrainians that we have organised, you should read these articles:

Experiences from the front line – Ukrainian combat medics meet Swedish total defence stakeholders

An opportunity to learn from each other when 120 medics from the front in Ukraine came to visit

Programme:

• Presentations:
  • Ukraine at war: what is needed and how does the country train people to meet its needs?
  • Sweden’s civilian medical preparedness: how do we train in peacetime? What education activities are needed, which ones are already in place and what can be scaled up?
  • Sweden’s military medical preparedness: What do we educate for and how is training provided within the Swedish Armed Forces? Can we expect a war in Sweden to place the same demands on healthcare as the war in Ukraine? 
• Exchange of experience through storytelling 
  • Group discussions based on individual previous experiences, what participants have learnt in recent years and what they wish they knew, or had known before the war broke out
• Lunch
• Discussion based on submitted questions
• Tour of Karolinska University Hospital: A&E, operating theatres, intensive care units.

Date and time:

14 December 2026, 10:00-17:00, with the opportunity to continue the conversation at a social event afterwards.

Venue:

Lecture hall J3:07 Sune Bergströms Aula at Karolinska University Hospital (street: Eugeniavägen 3) in Solna. 

Target audience and registration: 

This exchange of experience is aimed at those who are involved in various ways in healthcare training focused on wartime medicine, traumatology and disaster medicine; within, for example, Region Stockholm/SLSO, the City of Stockholm, the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency, the Swedish Armed Forces and/or the voluntary defence organisations. 

Click here to register. Participation is free of charge.

Organisers:

RePower, the Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital and the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency.

Questions:

If you have any questions about the day, please contact Lisa Strömmer at lisa.strommer@ki.se