Health chief urges Finns to reduce alcohol consumption as health personnel shortage worsens | News
Hospital districts across Finland have not succeeded in recruiting enough summer workers to cover the staff’s vacations.
The shortage of personnel in social and health care has worsened during the summer, when employers have not been able to recruit enough personnel to cover vacation trips.
Markus HenrikssonThe CEO of Valvira, the social and health supervisory authority, told Yle that the problems are “serious”.
“Usually during the summer season, activities have to be shortened due to vacations, but now the closings of summer units are more extensive than in previous years,” Henriksson said, adding that the problems are visible in all sectors of society and the social sector. Healthcare system.
Urgent and essential tasks will be attended to, he noted, but non-urgent care is likely to see queues grow and emergency services congested.
“The staffing shortage will be particularly acute in July. Hospitals may become overloaded, which will cause inconvenience to many patients and their relatives. Health and social workers are working hard at the moment,” said Henriksson.
Hospital districts across the country had predicted a difficult summer, and Brother Matti SulanderThe deputy director general of the hospital district of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) described the situation as “very challenging”.
“There is a significant shortage of staff. There are currently more than 500 less summer workers than we need. This has resulted in us having to close a very significant number of hospital beds,” said Sulander.
He added that the shortage also affects patient safety.
“Congestion is always a patient safety risk to some extent, especially in the emergency department. Waiting times are getting longer and that’s a challenge,” Sulander pointed out.
The situation is similar in the Varsinais-Suomen hospital district, with the director Petri Virolainen told Yle that the personnel shortage is much worse this year than in previous summers.
“We are able to treat urgent patients for the most part without any problems, but the queues for non-urgent patients are getting even longer. That is something that will only really become apparent in the coming weeks or months,” Virolainen said, adding that staff had been stretched “beyond belief” to ensure that everyone patients can be treated during peak times.
– We can almost manage in a normal situation, but if there was an exceptional situation, we would be in real trouble, he said.
Henriksson: Reducing alcohol would help
According to Valvira CEO Markus Henriksson, there are several reasons for the problems.
In addition to the long-standing labor shortage in social and health care, the situation has been worsened by the absences caused by Covid infections and the labor struggles that started in the spring.
The ban on overtime and shift changes by the nurses’ unions is still valid in the municipal sector, but in the summer nurses can work overtime and also change shifts if they wish. However, the employer cannot impose them.
In addition, the recent heat wave, the return of large public events and increased alcohol consumption are reflected in the increased workload of emergency services and paramedics.
Henriksson said he hopes that people will reduce the burden on social and health services by consuming alcohol in moderation during the summer.
“If citizens could be careful with alcohol and other substances, it would dramatically benefit social and health services and their patients and staff,” Henriksson said.