Government-sponsored patient safety bill fast-tracked in Parliament

Constitution Committee demands several changes to government measure

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Local sections of the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) are to be heard on decisions on how many health care professionals would be ordered to stay at work if a planned mass resignation campaign takes effect, as planned, on November the 19th.
      The government has introduced a bill into Parliament for a law that would make it possible to order health care professionals to work at jobs seen as essential for patient safety even if the person in question has resigned, or is retired.
      On Sunday the Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee gave its conditional approval to the measure. On Monday, the Social Affairs and Health Committee voted 11 to 6 to back the bill, which is having its first reading in the full Parliament in the afternoon.
     
The Constitutional Law Committee called for alterations to the proposal. The committee felt that if the adjustments are made, the bill can be passed into law by a simple majority in Parliament, rather than a qualified majority required for laws with the status of constitutional amendments.
      According to the committee, the tasks into which a health care professional can be ordered need to be specified, to prevent the law from being used as a weapon in a labour dispute.
      The committee also does not want to allow the arbitrary ordering to work of nurses involved in a labour dispute. Instead, it says that the law should specify that this should be done only for especially compelling reasons, and as a last resort. In addition, there should be a time limit on how long such an employee can be compelled to work under such conditions.
      The committee does not feel that conditional fines should routinely be used as a way of compelling a nurse to work. Instead, the matter should be left to the discretion of the State Provincial Office in question.
      The Constitutional Law Committee also wants to set an expiry date for the bill.
     
Also discussing the bill on Sunday was the Employment and Equality Committee, which was sharply divided on party lines.
      All members from opposition parties on the committee voted against the bill. In their view, the approval of Tehy should be sought whenever someone is ordered to work.
      The first reading of the bill is on Monday, and a final Parliamentary vote is expected on Thursday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mediation board begins efforts to reach settlement in labour dispute between nurses and municipal employers (1.11.2007)
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)
  Looming labour conflict would affect paediatrics, maternity, and surgery in Helsinki area (18.10.2007)
  Government introduces legislation to limit planned mass resignations of nurses (9.11.2007)
  Government prepares legislation to keep some nurses at work (6.11.2007)

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