Waiting Room Lines Concern Doctors at Maria Hospital
Image: YLE
Patients seeking emergency treatment at the Maria Hospital in Helsinki are forced to wait several hours before seeing a doctor.
Doctors at the hospital have sent an open letter listing their concerns to directors of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.
According to the doctors, labour shortages are behind the problem. Patients often have to wait 3 to 8 hours to see a doctor. During peak times, some patients have been forced to wait 10 to 14 hours. Other patients have been treated in corridors when bed space hits full-capacity.
Doctors have proposed hiring two more physicians to deal with the high workload, as well as increasing the number of on-call doctors during evenings. YLE