Looming labour conflict would affect paediatrics, maternity, and surgery in Helsinki area

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The nurses who are planning to take part in the mass resignation campaign at the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) have targeted some of the most critical services: paediatrics, maternity services, and surgery.
      "The situation is quite the opposite from the previous strikes. It is extremely serious. This was made clear to us only on Wednesday, says Seppo Kivinen, deputy director of HUS on the likely impact of the action called by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy).
      If the industrial action takes place as threatened, HUS feels that it would pose a serious threat to the health, and even the lives of people. HUS feels that in such a situation, responsibility will be at a higher level - not at the level of those producing services.
     
The worst situation would be in paediatrics. At the HUS Children's Hospital, 78 per cent of nurses are resigning, while at the Children's Castle, which focuses on chronic illnesses, 56 per cent of nursing staff have signed up for the action. The Children's Hospital is where the most demanding paediatric surgery, including heart surgery, is performed. The hospital already has had to turn away patients because of a shortage of staff in intensive care.
      This year alone, 200 heart surgeries have had to be postponed.
      A few children can be sent to Gothenburg in Sweden for treatment. About 300 children undergo heart surgery each year at HUS.
      About 150 nurses are leaving the most critical locations. For instance, it is nearly impossible to find substitutes for the two intensive care units of the Children's Hospital, because the tasks require special training.
      "In the worst cases we will need to prioritise", says hospital administrator Veli Ylitalo.
      In Espoo, about 40 per cent of nurses at the children's ward at Jorvi Hospital are also planning to resign.
     
If the industrial action takes effect there are contingency plans to shut down maternity services in Jorvi and in the Lohja Hospital, and to concentrate baby deliveries in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Meilahti Hospital, and the Kätilöopisto Maternity Hospital. Births would continue in Hyvinkää, Porvoo, and Tammisaari. HUS is also looking into the possibility of getting help from other hospitals at a distance of 100 - 150 kilometres.
      HUS plans to scale back its maternity out-patient services, and ultrasound examinations could come to an end. The blood service could face serious paralysis.
     
The labour conflict would seriously reduce surgery. HUS would have to stop operating at the Surgical Hospital, the Peijas and Herttoniemi hospitals, and Maria Hospitals, which would be completely shut down.
      An estimated 20 out of 70 operating tables would remain in use, and about half of intensive care beds would still be used. Surgery would be concentrated on the Meilahti, Töölö, and Jorvi hospitals.
      At the Helsinki University Central Hospital, 45 per cent of nurses have said that they will resign; about half of surgical nurses at HUCH are taking part in the action. In jeopardy are burn treatment, intensive care, organ transplants, and jaw surgery.
      The action would lead to a lengthening of the queue for heart surgery.
      "We will look and see who are on the [resignation] lists, and we will try to agree on giving emergency and on-call care", says acting head physician, Professor Markku S. Nieminen.
      "HUS has the country's only 24-hour on-call cardiological unit. We will try to secure its activity. It appears that we will be able to do so."
      Non-urgent surgeries will be postponed. Surgery queues that were once years in length have been brought under control, and now the wait is just a few months. The queue grew earlier this year thanks to a shortage of staff, but it was shortened again in August by doubling the number of operations.
     
About 3,000 nurses are threatening to resign in the HUS hospitals. Seppo Kivinen says that about 500 of the group are on fixed-term contracts, and HUS feels that they do not have a right to terminate their employment prematurely.
      There are 11,515 nurses and 635 midwives working in HUS and the HUS area.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hospitals fear impact of nurses´ threatened industrial action (11.10.2007)
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)
  Tehy rejects contract offer approved by other nurses´ union (1.10.2007)
  Ministry of Labour ready to accept validity of mass resignation of Tehy nurses (17.10.2007)
  Nearly 13,000 nurses ready for mass resignation (15.10.2007)

Links:
  TV report: Nurses´ mass resignation to apply to about 20 hospitals (12.10.2007)

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