Questions over private contractor hired to run public health care in Raseborg

Carema has health care operations in Finland as well

print this

The private company Carema Care, which provides health care services in Sweden, is in the midst of a scandal in that country after shortcomings in its elderly care unit were revealed.
      Nurses and next of kin have reported cases of bed sores and of undernourishment of senior citizens at Carema facilities.
      In Finland, there are moves now to stop the outsourcing of the Karjaa public health centre to Carema, which is owned by Ambea, the same company that owns the Swedish Carema Care.
     
The Finnish Carema was given a two-year contract by the town and municipality of Raseborg (Raasepori in Finnish), west of Helsinki, to run the Karjaa health centre, the Pohja dental clinic, and the home care services of the Karjaa region. The contract includes an option for two extra years.
      Carema was in the news in Finland last year as the employer that hired a man as a doctor who did not have genuine credentials. The fake doctor wrote thousands of prescriptions in Karjaa and Karkkila before being exposed.
     
Ambea is the mother company of both the Swedish and Finnish Caremas.
      Ambea CEO Matti Bergendahl emphasises that the subsidiaries operate independently.
      Kai Vesterinen, acting CEO of the Mehiläinen Group, which owns Finnish Carema, emphasises that Finnish principles are applied in the Finnish operations.
      The quality of care offered by Carema has been found to be acceptable by the municipality of Raseborg, says the town’s director of basic care, Arne Nummenmaa.
      However, in Karjaa, there have been problems in staffing.
     
Under the contract with the city, the public health clinic is supposed to have five doctors on staff.
      Half of the input of a doctor goes into administration.
      As the company sees it, the health clinic implements the work input of five doctors on average, but that this does not mean that there would have to be five doctors actually working at the clinic.
      As demand has increased for diabetes treatment, city authorities feel that Carema needs to meet the growing demand.
      The clinic says that it already has two diabetes nurses.
      There is also constant discussion between the company and the municipal authorities on how the municipality is to maintain and replace furniture and medical equipment, which the municipality is responsible for.
     
Nummenmaa says that the question is one of money and economics. “Business is business.”
      The chairman of the Raseborg basic care board, Roger Engblom (Swedish People’s Party), says that there has been wrangling about the allocation of personnel.
      He predicts that the contract will not be extended.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Phony doctor hurts credibility of Karkkila health services (11.1.2010)
  Local authorities falter in outsourcing services (18.1.2011)
  Poll: Fewer want outsourcing of public health care services (7.1.2011)

Helsingin Sanomat