Ah, the essentials of the public system. You’ve hit the nail on the head.

What the FRAK, give to the groups that have low GDP output?

No, lets invest were the economy grows, the private sector, but cutting taxes.

I guess we need to refocus the resources and put them where they should be..stop redirecting them toward IT or Construction but lets create and give more incentives to the medical and social group as in a few years time they will be more than needed..

How thoughtful.

The second emergancy room check him out because my wife stubbornly insisted that they do so. He only had to wait several hours with a high fever. They didn’t bother to take his temp or give fever reducing medicine. When they diagnosed strep they perscribed antibiotics and sent him home. Several days later he was fine and we were happy. We didn’t find out until our daughter had strep in the States as an infant that the hospital in Finland had made many risky decisions based on statitics, which saved them a lot of money but put my son’s life at risk.

When my daughter had strep as an infant we were very poor and were on government insurance in the US(it does exist). We brought her to the emergancy room where they took her temp immeadiatly and shortly thereafter brought her back and started running tests. When strep was diagnosed she was hooked up to an IV and stayed in the hospital for a week. The infection was gone after a few days but she stayed in the hospital to be monitered due to the life threatening danger strep can be for an infant. The government paid the $8,500 dollar bill.

When we told the docters how our son’s strep had been treated in Finland they could not believe it. Essentially his life was put at risk because of the statistical success rate of the antibotic which is something like 90% in these situations. The Finnish doctors did not inform us of the risks of strep to the infant nor that there may be a chance that the antibiotic may not perform it’s job. They said, “Give him this and he’ll be fine.”

An ethical violation of this magnatude would be grounds for a lawsuit in the US.

I don’t think the Finnish docters where bad people. They were great people, but they are underpaid, under educated, overworked, not liable for careless or intentional mistakes, and work in a system where taking chances to keep costs down is encouraged.

And who are you to say when someone else’s workload is too much? Doctors are tired of this “kutsumusammatti” 70h/week bullshit. They have families and kids too. That is propably the biggest reason why many doctors see the private sector as a good alternative: you can influence your own workload and hours.

Whereas in a private system it is to the owners’ benefit to maintain systems so that they produce services as efficiently as possible.

Personal experiences:
Breast biopsy
Public clinic: waiting time 3 weeks.
Private clinic: waiting time 3 days.

Dental examination (preventive care beats root canal any time of the day)
Public service: waiting time 9 months to forever.
Private clinic: waiting time 3 days.

The public “service” generates nothing but negatives for me, since in addition to not getting any service I feel like a patsy since I’ve already been forced to pay for the public service.

And anyone in medicine who complains about the stress or the workload should really find a more suitable career. Even in the best of times, medicine ain’t relaxing, especially the ER. Duh.

Yes of course the situation in one hospitals one emmergency room reflects the state of the whole of public healthcare in Finland including dentists.

This is a real problem, but a solvable problem.
On the other hand I think if would be completely the intolerable the market would have spoken and there’d be much more private healthcare in Finland.

I helped her away from the path of the moving traffic, and I suggested that she go to the nearby Maria hospital.

She said that she was just discharged from there, and refused to consider going back there.

I could not understand why, since she collapsed on the street.

She slowly walked away, still abit wobbly, and I followed her until she entered a busy and crowded area where others could help if she fell again.

I really wondered why she refused to go back to that hospital.

Now, I guess I know.

More doctors may or may not help. I think the solution lies in better training, leeway (for decision making) and pay for nurses. I know two British nurses who are not real happy with the situation for nurses in Finland.