What is public healthcare in Finland like?

What is public healthcare?

Under its constitution, the Finnish state pledges to provide adequate social and healthcare services for all and to promote the health of the population. Wellbeing services counties are responsible for social and healthcare services. Wellbeing services counties receive state support for this.

The aim of healthcare is to promote and maintain the population's health, well-being, ability to work and function, and social security, as well as to reduce health inequalities.

Public healthcare in Finland includes:

• promotion of health and prevention of diseases, as well as care and rehabilitation
• maternal and child healthcare
• vaccinations
• doctor, dentist and nurse appointments
• mental health services, emergency and on-call service,
• hospitals
• home care
• school and student healthcare
• occupational healthcare

Basic healthcare refers to the various different basic-level healthcare services, population health monitoring and health promotion.

Permanent residents of Finland have the right not just to medical care, but also preventative measures.

What kind of public healthcare services are available in Finland?

Public medical care is primarily available at healthcare centres and hospitals. The doctors working at healthcare centres are generally GPs, who can provide referrals to specialist doctors at hospitals. All those who live in Finland are entitled to use the services.

In urgent cases, patients must be given treatment regardless of their country of residence.

Residents of Finland have the right not just to medical care but also to preventative services. The promotion of health and prevention of illnesses are important aims in Finland. For example, with the vaccination programme and good hygiene, many infectious diseases and epidemics have been prevented, especially amongst children. By supporting lifestyle changes, cardiovascular diseases can be reduced. Reducing the number of accidents that occur is also an important aim.

Healthcare Centres

The wellbeing services county provides basic healthcare services at healthcare centres, which are residents' immediate healthcare points. Healthcare centres provide a range of basic level services:

• doctor's appointments
• wards for those needing hospital care
• nurse's appointments
• health counselling, which also includes maternity and child healthcare
• screening and vaccinations
• oral healthcare
• mental healthcare services
• home care and at-home hospital care
• emergency care for acute minor illnesses. Emergency services outside office hours are often offered at hospitals

People can choose which healthcare services to use – they do not have to use nearest healthcare centre and can change their healthcare centre at most once a year.

Hospitals

There are hospitals throughout the country – 21 wellbeing services counties, the city of Helsinki and the joint county authority for the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa have hospitals serving the residents in their respective areas.

Hospitals primarily provide specialist medical care services. Specialist medical care refers to the examinations and care given at hospitals in various medical specialities, such as surgical operations or psychiatric hospital care. Health centre doctors can refer patients to hospitals. Hospitals have emergency departments for urgent cases.

How do I access public healthcare services?

In urgent situations you can go straight to your nearest healthcare centre or hospital.

In other cases you can book an appointment at a healthcare centre by phone. At healthcare centres you can book appointments with nurses or have basic tests done at the laboratory. You can also access other services through the healthcare centre, such as home care or mental health services.

Health centre GPs can refer you for an appointment with a specialist doctor.

Know your rights

The Commission's publication and website:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=849&langId=fi

Who should I contact?

• Contact the health centre in your home wellbeing services county.
• In urgent cases, the emergency number in Finland is 112.