The possibility for foreign doctors to receive informal specialist training in Sweden for a fee has existed since the 1980s, but today only Skåne University Hospital and Sahlgrenska University Hospital offer such a system, a so-called “specialist medical training program” (SMTP ). But in the certificate issued by the National Board of Health and Welfare after the training, there is a change that has caused concern, reports Dagens Medicin. It was previously stated that doctors had specialist skills. That word has been dropped in favor of wording that the doctor has “postgraduate training”, which would signal a lower level of competence than others who have had equivalent training in other countries. The National Board of Health and Welfare made the change to avoid confusion with the formal specialist certificates of competence which require Swedish identification.

– We just want the certificates to confirm that we have completed full specialist training – not that we have just completed “postgraduate training” as in English speaking countries this may mean you have only partially completed the training, says Ahmed Badri of Saudi Arabia Arabia, which has completed the SMTP program in Skåne, to Dagens Medicin.

He says he has friends from the program who had big problems getting their Swedish certificates accepted.

– These are ambitious people whose entire career is seriously hampered. First of all, I think we have a moral obligation to live up to what we said and what the doctors expected of us when they came here, says Per Ola Kimblad, deputy head of administration at Skåne University Hospital.

Representatives of the SMTP courses now hope for help from the government so that the professional competence is more clearly reflected in the certificates. According to Per Ola Kimblad, they are currently developing a proposal for what a supplementary document to the certificate from the National Board of Health and Welfare could look like.