Public Health System "Teetering on Edge of Collapse"

The Medical Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health says that authorities may be trying to save health centres by selling them off to contract doctors.

A rotating roster of private medical clinics already accounts for the majority of on-duty medical staff at municipal health centres. Municipalities are also purchasing private doctors’ services on fixed-term contracts for those areas beleaguered by a shortage of doctors. Matti Uusitupa, Rector of Kuopio University’s Medical School, says that entire public health system is in danger.

“In some areas there are already clear signs of this. For example, preventive health care, school health care and perinatal clinics face the greatest risk, and I don’t believe that private contract doctors can provide these services in the same way that the public services can,” he charged.

Uusitupa says behind the move towards privatisation is a new attitude among physicians – the ethic is not the same as it was before.

“Young doctors are putting themselves first more. They want to enjoy their lives and are not as committed to maintaining and developing our public health care system,” he declared.

The medical school chief also believes that the lure of money is attracting more doctors to the private sector.

“If 60-70 percent of a doctor’s work time is spent in the private sector, then money must be one reason,” said Uusitupa.

In recent years, record numbers of doctors have graduated from medical schools. More than half of them have taken up practice with private firms. The number of doctors working in the private sector has grown by more than 70 percent over the past decade.

Conversely, in municipalities struggling with a doctor shortage, the number of new doctors entering the public service has grown by just 15 percent. At the same time, municipalities have tripled or quadrupled the purchase of services from private doctors.