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Health Centres Reopen after Doctor Shortage Shuts Them |
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By Sangita Basu
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Thursday, 31 July 2008 |
Oulu's health centres are to re-open and return to normal working hours as of 4th August. Many of them have been closed or operating a limited service for well over month due to Oulu's chronic shortage of state doctors.
 According to Kaleva, the city's National Health Service clinics have over twenty unfilled vacancies for doctors and this - coupled with medical staff taking their holidays all at once - has meant that many health centres have shut for the summer. Appointments have been rationed by the busy health centres still open, meaning that only real emergencies are responded to. However, a Kaleva article has stressed that though many health centres have closed or limited their hours cover is supposed to be broadly equal across the city.
However, one Kaleva reader has responded with dismay with news of the health centres returning to normal hours, claiming that the decision to close the centres for the summer has been taken by 'wealthy people' who would themselves use private healthcare.
Many professions in Finland come with private health insurance meaning that the state health centres are disproportionately used by the self-employed, unemployed, students and old aged pensioners.
Some of these private health centres charge around seventy euros for a twenty minute consultation and have been, effectively, the only option for unwell people in Oulu over the summer who are not regarded as 'emergencies.' Unlike in the state health centres, private patients are able to see a doctor within hours - not days or weeks - of making the appointment and do not have to describe their symptoms to a nurse first so that they can be 'prioritised.'
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