Modelling Dilemmas in Access to Specialised Healthcare Services in Sweden Using a Serious Game

The Swedish public healthcare system faces persistent systemic inefficiencies, particularly regarding prolonged waiting times for specialized services and the complex coordination between primary and secondary care providers. To address these challenges, a dilemma-based serious game serves as a simulation tool designed to model the socio-technical tensions inherent in national health policy. By integrating real-world workflow mapping with stakeholder conflict analysis, this approach provides policymakers and practitioners with a controlled environment to evaluate reform scenarios and navigate the competing priorities of public accessibility, financial sustainability, and operational efficiency.

The simulation focuses on the interplay between diverse stakeholders, including public health centers, hospitals, and private providers, each operating under distinct mandates and constraints. Through a four-round scenario, participants must manage budget limitations, staffing levels, and patient throughput to achieve collective treatment goals. This framework highlights the critical trade-offs between maintaining fiscal responsibility and ensuring equitable, timely access to care. By assigning specific roles to administrators, physicians, and regional bodies, the game forces players to confront the systemic friction that often hinders effective resource allocation.

Ultimately, this methodology demonstrates that serious games function as effective policy dialogue tools for complex public sectors. The findings suggest that by visualizing the conflicting objectives of various healthcare actors, stakeholders can develop a more nuanced understanding of the systemic bottlenecks within the Swedish model. This replicable framework offers a viable path for exploring sensitive, multi-stakeholder challenges, providing a structured way to test policy interventions before their implementation in real-world clinical environments.