Karolinska Hospital

Karolinska University Hospital
University Hospital in Solna
Geography
Location	Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Solna, 171 76 Stockholm Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Huddinge, 141 86 Stockholm, Stockholm County, Stockholm, Sweden
Coordinates	59°21′08″N 18°01′56″E / 59.35222°N 18.03222°E / 59.35222; 18.03222Coordinates: 59°21′08″N 18°01′56″E / 59.35222°N 18.03222°E / 59.35222; 18.03222
Organisation
Funding	Public hospital
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Karolinska Institutet
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	about 1,736
Helipad	Yes ICAO: ESHK
Links
Website	www.karolinska.se
Lists	Hospitals in Sweden

The Karolinska University Hospital (Swedish: Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset) is a university hospital in , Sweden, with two major sites in the municipalities of Huddinge and Solna. It is the second largest hospital system in Sweden, after Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.

The present day Karolinska University Hospital is the result of a 2004 merger between the former Huddinge University Hospital (Huddinge universitetssjukhus) in Huddinge, south of Stockholm, and the Karolinska Hospital (Karolinska Sjukhuset) in Solna, north of Stockholm. The new hospital has about 15,000 employees and 1,700 patient beds. The Karolinska University Hospital is closely affiliated with the Karolinska Institutet. It incorporates the Astrid Lindgren Children’s hospital in Solna and the Children’s Hospital in Huddinge.

The Karolinska University Hospital in Solna is in the process of being replaced by The New Karolinska Solna University Hospital, to be completed by end of 2016.

The New Karolinska Solna University Hospital (NKS) (Swedish: Nya Karolinska Solna), is the new university hospital to be built in , Sweden, replacing the present Karolinska University Hospital. Estimated completion is December 2015.

NKS is also Sweden's first public-private partnership (PPP) project in healthcare. The process for contracting, planning and building the hospital has been heavily criticized by an independent review published by Timbro. When the hospital was planned, there was an inadequate assessment of the costs of renovating the old Karolinska and the focus was on architectural design and only after a competition had been held was there feedback from a medical perspective. The hospital is smaller than the current Karolinska and does not meet the future needs of an ageing population with increasing healthcare demands. The contracting of the hospital was also not performed correctly as there was only one bid on the tender. The cost of the hospital is currently estimated to 50 000 million SEK and this does not take into account the costs of increasing the number of beds in other Stockholm hospitals or alternatively keeping the old Karolinska to have sufficient number of hospital beds for future needs. The building costs widely exceed those of other, similar projects in Europe and the US. The contracts and details of the New Karolinska have been classified as confidential information despite the bill being picked up by Swedish taxpayers.