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Language and interpreters in Swedish healthcare

If you have sat through a consultation in Sweden about your own diagnosis and understood perhaps two thirds of it, this page is for you. It sets out what Swedish law actually requires on language — which is not what most English-language guides claim — and what to ask for, on what basis, and when.

Quick answer

You may be entitled to a language interpreter when it is needed for you to understand the information and protect your rights. Tell the clinic when booking: the healthcare provider assesses the need, arranges the interpreter, and normally does not charge the patient. The entitlement is not stated as a single right in the health legislation — the named interpreter duty there covers deaf, deafblind and hearing-impaired patients. For language it is built from chapter 3, section 6 of the Patient Act (information adapted to the patient's linguistic background), section 7 (the provider must make sure as far as possible that the patient understood) and section 13 of the Administrative Procedure Act.

What the common claim gets wrong

Search in English for healthcare in Sweden and you will repeatedly read that non-Swedish-speaking patients have a right to an interpreter, often with a citation to the health legislation. The citation does not support the claim. The interpreter duty named in chapter 8, section 7 of the Health and Medical Services Act reads, in the relevant part:

tolktjänst för vardagstolkning för barndomsdöva, dövblinda, vuxendöva och hörselskadade

Everyday interpreting for people who are deaf from childhood, deafblind, deafened as adults, or hearing-impaired. A real obligation — and about sign language and hearing, not about speaking Ukrainian, Arabic or English.

Where the duty actually comes from

Three provisions do the work instead, and together they get you close to the same place by a different road.

Patient Act, chapter 3, section 6. Information to the patient must be adapted to the recipient:

Informationen ska anpassas till mottagarens ålder, mognad, erfarenhet, språklig bakgrund och andra individuella förutsättningar.

Språklig bakgrund — linguistic background — is named explicitly among the things the information must be adapted to.

Patient Act, chapter 3, section 7. And the provider must check that it landed:

Den som ger informationen ska så långt som möjligt försäkra sig om att mottagaren har förstått innehållet i och betydelsen av den lämnade informationen.

Administrative Procedure Act, section 13. For publicly run providers, which are authorities in this sense, there is a direct interpreter duty:

En myndighet ska använda tolk och se till att översätta handlingar om det behövs för att den enskilde ska kunna ta till vara sin rätt när myndigheten har kontakt med någon som inte behärskar svenska.

Why the difference is worth knowing

Most of the time it is academic: you say you need an interpreter, the provider agrees one is needed, and it is arranged. It stops being academic the moment someone declines. "I have a right to an interpreter" invites a reply about which provision, and the provision most people have been told to cite is about hearing loss. "Information has to be adapted to my linguistic background under chapter 3, section 6, and you have to make sure I have understood under section 7" is a request that rests on what the law actually says.

One thing to be clear about in either case: it is the healthcare provider that assesses whether an interpreter is needed and arranges one. The entitlement is real but it is not self-executing, which is precisely why it should be raised at booking rather than on the day.

There is also a second, quieter reason. The duty in section 7 is about comprehension, not about language services. It means that a consultation you technically sat through in English but did not follow is not a consultation that met the standard — whatever language it was conducted in.

How Andrabedomning.se fits in

Andrabedomning.se is an independent Swedish patient guidance service. You describe your situation in a request — in English — and a person reads it and replies, normally within one working day, with information about relevant specialist contact. If we cannot help, you get an explanation of why and where to turn instead. We do not diagnose or provide medical care. Records go directly to the care provider, never to us.

Sending a request is free and commits you to nothing. If we can coordinate a suitable specialist contact, two amounts are disclosed to you in writing before anything is booked: our coordination fee (samordningsavgift), which is our only source of revenue, and the specialist's fee, which is set by the care provider and paid directly to them. We take no commissions or referral fees from specialists or clinics. How it works in full →

Andrabedomning.se coordinates the contact. The medical assessment is made by the specialist and care provider you choose.

Frequently asked questions about language and interpreters

So do I have a right to an interpreter in Swedish healthcare or not?

You may be entitled to a language interpreter when one is needed for you to understand the information and protect your rights — but the entitlement does not come from a sentence saying "patients have a right to an interpreter". It is built from the duty in chapter 3, section 6 of the Patient Act to adapt information to your linguistic background, the duty in section 7 to make sure as far as possible that you understood, and — for publicly run providers — section 13 of the Administrative Procedure Act. The healthcare provider assesses whether an interpreter is needed and arranges one. Tell the clinic when you book; the legal route matters if someone says no.

Who pays for the interpreter?

In publicly funded care the provider arranges and pays for it; you are not billed for the interpreter as a separate item. In private care the provider decides its own practice, and an interpreter may be something you arrange and pay for yourself. Ask when booking rather than assuming, because private providers are not covered by the Administrative Procedure Act duty.

Can I bring a family member to interpret instead?

You can, and for a routine appointment many people do. It is a poor idea for a consultation about surgery. A relative who is not a trained medical interpreter will summarise, soften and occasionally omit — usually with good intentions — and you will not know what was left out. For a conversation where you are consenting to an irreversible procedure, ask for a professional interpreter.

What is the interpreter provision in the health legislation actually about?

The named interpreter duty in chapter 8, section 7 of the Health and Medical Services Act concerns tolktjänst för vardagstolkning för barndomsdöva, dövblinda, vuxendöva och hörselskadade — everyday interpreting for people who are deaf, deafblind or hearing-impaired. It is a genuine and specific regional obligation. It is not a general language-interpreting duty, and English-language guides that cite it as one are citing the wrong provision.

When should I raise the language question?

When you book, in writing if possible. An interpreter has to be arranged in advance and cannot usually be produced on the day. Say which language you need and whether you want an interpreter or a clinician who speaks it. The consultation where you discover no one arranged anything is, reliably, the one where the decision was going to be made.

Does this change anything about a second opinion?

It changes what a second opinion is for. A meaningful share of people seeking one are not disputing the medicine — they did not fully follow the first consultation and have no way to tell whether they disagree with it. If that describes you, say so plainly when you seek the second assessment. It is a legitimate reason and it changes how the specialist will use the time.

Sources

Patient Act (patientlagen 2014:821), chapter 3, sections 6–7 — the duty to adapt information to the recipient's linguistic background, and to ensure as far as possible that the recipient understood it.
Administrative Procedure Act (förvaltningslagen 2017:900), section 13 — the duty of an authority to use an interpreter when in contact with someone who does not master Swedish.
Health and Medical Services Act (2017:30), chapter 8, section 7 — that the named interpreter duty concerns everyday interpreting for deaf, deafblind and hearing-impaired patients — not general language interpreting.

Editorially produced by Andrabedomning.se from the primary sources above. Sources last checked: 4 August 2026.

Second opinion in Sweden — the main guide
The three routes, and where language fits into each.
Finding care in English in Sweden
Where English-language consultations are routine and where they are not.
Your legal right to a second opinion
The other provision people are commonly told they have and often do not.
Getting your medical records
Reading your own notes is often the fastest way past a consultation you did not follow.

Did not follow the consultation that mattered?

Describe your situation in a few sentences and tell us which assessment or recommendation you have already received. Sending a request is free. If we can coordinate a suitable specialist contact, our coordination fee and the specialist's separate fee are disclosed in writing before you decide whether to book.

Send a free request

In an emergency, call 112. For non-urgent medical advice, call 1177.