Increased dissatisfaction with availability of municipal services

print this

Finns increasingly feel that public services offered by their home municipalities are inadequate. According to a study to be published on Friday by the Foundation for Municipal Development (KAKS), satisfaction has declined most sharply in the availability of public health services.
      Four years ago nearly 75% of respondents found municipal health services to be adequate. This year satisfaction has gone down to just 50%.
     
In addition to health services, there has been a decline in satisfaction with child day care, street maintenance, and street lighting.
      Frustration has also grown with services for the elderly, with critics outnumbering those who are happy with their availability.
      Nearly one in five respondents felt that municipal services in general were inadequate, while four years ago one in ten felt this way.
     
The increase in dissatisfaction did not come as a great surprise to KAKS representative Lasse Ristinkartano.
      Marianne Pelkola-Sjöblom, head of research at the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, sees the changes as a cause for concern. However, she also says that the level of satisfaction expressed in the previous study, in 2000, was unexpectedly high.
      Pelkola-Sjöblom also notes that the fresh study does not provide a breakdown of opinions among different types of municipalities.
      "Usually satisfaction with services is higher in small municipalities. However, it is not known if this is linked with the level of service or the level of expectations."
     
The study revealed considerable differences between the perceptions that political decision-makers and the population at large have on the adequacy of services; municipal politicians were generally more content with the level of services than their constituents were.
      However, the decision-makers and the citizens agreed that street maintenance is "barely adequate". Helsinki residents had empirical evidence of this last winter as streets remained without snowploughing for lengthy periods, and there was a spate of injuries from slippery sidewalks.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Clean-up after snowstorm to take weeks in Helsinki area (3.2.2004)
  Helsinki only major city in Finland to curb growth in health care costs (29.3.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat