FINLAND
Mrs Hannele Häkkinen
HOPE Governor, The Association of Finnish Local and
Regional Authorities
Could you describe the last hospital and/
or healthcare reforms implemented in your
country in the past 5 years?
One of the initiatives implemented in recent
years was the division of healthcare services
provided between secondary hospitals and
centralised hospitals. In particular, centralised
hospitals are now in charge of demanding and
providing rare treatments and diagnostics, for
example, surgical operations including hip and
knee replacement, as well as childbirths. The five
university hospitals offer the most demanding
treatment. The goal is to guarantee equal access
to services, sufficient skills and knowledge to
health professionals, patient safety as well as
to curb the cost growth.
A second initiative is the introduction of joint
emergency care units (primary and secondary
care) in central hospitals and the division of work
between nurses and doctors in primary care and
emergency care in hospitals.
Finally, the Health and Social Services Reform
is ongoing. The goal is to put primary care,
secondary care and social care under one
umbrella. At the moment the municipalities
are responsible for organising health and social
services. This responsibility will be transferred
to 18 new counties on 1 January 2021. The law
proposal is in Parliament but it is uncertain as to
whether it will be approved because there will be
parliamentary elections in April 2019. 3
Could you present two/three elements on
the impact of such reforms on hospital and/
or healthcare sectors that your organisation/
country has identified?
The goals of the centralisation of the most
demanding and rare treatment to fewer hospitals
are better cost-efficiency, better quality of care
and treatment and better patient safety.
FINLAND
Total current health expenditure as % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
General government/compulsory current health expenditure as % of total current health expenditure
Hospital current health expenditure, as % of total current health expenditure
Household out-of-pocket health expenditure as % of total current health expenditure
All hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants
Acute care hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants
Acute care admissions/discharges per 100 inhabitants
Average length of stay for acute care hospitals (bed-days)
Practising physicians per 100,000 inhabitants
Practising nurses per 100,000 inhabitants
17
HHE 2019 | hospitalhealthcare.com
2002 2008 2016
7.4%
8.1%
9.5%
72.6%
74.7%
74.5%
36.3%
34.1%
35.9%
22.0%
19.6%
20.4%
735.0
657.0
397.0
383.0
350.0
294.0
19.9
17.9
16.2
7.1
7.1
6.5
253.0
272.0
321.0
1071.0
1314.0
1426.0