Delays in implementation of medical treatment guarantee

Shortage of doctors and money delays reduction of treatment queues

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More than 34,000 Finns have spent more than six months on waiting lists for hospital treatment, even though all long treatment queues in the Finnish public health care system were to have been eliminated by the beginning of September.
      Differences in lengths of hospital queues vary considerably in Finland’s various health care districts. In the Mikkeli region, patients have fairly quick access to treatment, while in the regions of Oulu, Kainuu, and Jyväskylä, patients still have to wait for well over six months for a medical procedure.
     
The problem is not always a lack of physical or human resources. In the Tampere region, for instance, there is sufficient medical personnel and hospital facilities; the problem is that municipalities in the area do not want to spend much on health care.
      The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has decided to hold discussions with the health care districts with the greatest problems.
      The treatment guarantee system has had many positive effects. Three years ago there were more than 66,000 people on waiting lists of more than six months. Now there are just slightly over 34,000. The original goal was for all treatment queues to be reduced less than six months by the beginning of September this year.
     
Most of the patients on the waiting lists are queueing for orthopaedic surgery, cataract operations, or plastic surgery. Thousands of patients with hearing loss are waiting to be fit with hearing aids.
      To reduce the waits, doctors have been working overtime. Local authorities have also subcontracted municipal health care to private clinics, or to different hospitals within the same health care district.
     
The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa is discussing the possibility of reducing the backlog by scheduling operations on Sundays, in addition to the present evening and Saturday operations.
      There is not much that a patient can do to speed things up. Doctors say that direct contact with the hospital unit is the most effective way to address the issue.
      Even if the wait exceeds the six month maximum, patients are not entitled to use the services of a private clinic, and forward the bill to the municipality.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  No plans to restrict reimbursement of medical expenses for private health care (15.2.2005)
  Hospitals fear nurse shortage may make treatment guarantee impossible to implement (8.9.2004)
  Helsinki hiring 137 new people to upgrade health services (18.2.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat