Crisis caused by understaffing deepens at Helsinki emergency services

One in seven callers to 112 emergency line must queue for up to two minutes

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The answering time to calls made to the emergency number in Helsinki has grown longer, despite the fact that the number of made calls has been reduced to nearly a half from last year.
      In July 2006, no less than 15 percent of all the calls to the 112 emergency number were made to wait in a queue from half a minute to two minutes. Of these nearly 2,800 callers, over 1,300 had to queue for over a minute.
      In July 2005, on the other hand, only three percent of all the callers had to wait from half a minute to two minutes. Only 15 of the 900 callers left in a queue had to wait for over a minute.
      Simultaneously, the number of calls made to the Helsinki Emergency Response Centre has dropped from 33,000 to 19,000, thanks to the establishing of two other emergency response centres in the southern province of Uusimaa.
      The figures are derived directly from the Helsinki Emergency Response Centre system.
     
The current problems are a direct result of understaffing of the Helsinki centre. After the nationwide emergency centre services reform, Helsinki has suffered from a chronic shortage of employees. The problem has been tackled, for example, by hiring police officers and workers from other emergency centres.
      In June, the Minister of the Interior Kari Rajamäki (SDP) announced that the Helsinki Emergency Response Centre must not be understaffed during Finland's EU Presidency. Rajamäki's comment was a response to MP and chair of the Helsinki City Council Rakel Hiltunen's (SDP) written parliamentary question.
      The foreman of the Helsinki First Response Unit, the ambulance doctor in charge Teuvo Määttä, claims that the measures taken up by the Emergency Response Centre's to meet this request have been inadequate.
      "During the whole time the centre has employed around 50 police officers as duty officers. Only ten or so of them still remain in the house", Määttä recounts.
      The police officers receive a two-week training for the emergency centre work. Twelve officers in all enrolled in the latest course. "Only one of them completed the course."
     
Thanks to certain temporary measures in the month of August, the employment situation at the Helsinki Emergency Response Centre has improved slightly for the next couple of months.
      While the Emergency Centre director Markus Grönholm is on holiday, none of the staff seem to be at liberty to tell exactly how many duty officers are currently on the payroll. After a request by director Jyrki Landstedt from the Emergency Response Centre Administration in Finland, it is finally revealed that 60 of the 62 duty officer posts have been filled.
     
Määttä expresses astonishment at these figures. As far as he knows, the Helsinki centre currently employs 34 duty officers, 10 of whom are from the police. "It seems everyone but the cleaners are included in the headcount."
      Määttä's sentiments are shared by some other emergency centre and fire department workers, who wish to remain anonymous.
      Määttä and Rakel Hiltunen wonder why none of the higher decision-makers seem to acknowledge Helsinki's emergency response problems, or to carry the responsibility of them.
      Even Jyrki Landstedt does not recognise all the problems. According to his own words, he does not have first hand information concerning long queuing times. "When in a queue, patience is a virtue", he says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Percentage of calls to the Helsinki Emergency Response Centre that were

Helsingin Sanomat