In social, health, and rescue services, one goal stands above all: people must receive the help they need as quickly as possi­ble. No one gets better in a wait­ing queue.  We want to ensure that now and, in the future, people can access health services, humane care, and other neces­sary services.

Our popu­la­tion is aging, so social and health services will be needed even more in the future. Only by doing things better than we currently do, can we ensure that resources and person­nel are able to match these grow­ing needs.

The social and health care reform took almost over a decade - now it is finally done. Next, we need to modern­ize the services for the new millen­nium. In other words, shift from admin­is­tra­tion-centred gover­nance to human-centred one.

For us, the most impor­tant ques­tion is that instead of the bureau­cracy, it should be the human, be it the customer or the profes­sional, that thrives and feels well. To achieve this goal, we need to improve: develop services, work to ensure the avail­abil­ity of person­nel, and secure suffi­cient fund­ing. The services of the welfare soci­ety can be ensured as long as we keep our eyes firmly on the goal.

Well­be­ing services coun­ties already have the means and exper­tise for these neces­sary reforms. Over 200,000 profes­sion­als work in Finland who know what needs to be done. The National Coali­tion Party supports our support profes­sion­als in this impor­tant work.

Social, health, and rescue services are not unchange­able museum pieces. By boldly adopt­ing new ways of work­ing, strength­en­ing basic services and preven­tion, and utiliz­ing tech­nol­ogy when­ever it makes sense, we can build better services for people while ensur­ing our expenses keep at a sustain­able level.

Discus­sions around well­be­ing services coun­ties too often revolve around crises. Social, health, and rescue services do not need more crisis talk, but actions instead.

The solu­tions to the chal­lenges of well­be­ing services coun­ties exist – now they need to be imple­mented.

Fast Access to Good Care and Humane Services

No one gets better in a queue. Every Finn must be able to trust that they will receive the care and services they need in a timely, smooth, and safe manner, in both offi­cial languages. Services should be designed to meet people’s needs, not admin­is­tra­tive require­ments.

Services should aim for simple things: it should be easy to get an appoint­ment with a doctor, and the doctor should be famil­iar with the patien­t’s situ­a­tion. The National Coali­tion Party wants every welfare area to adopt the personal doctor model. A fixed patient care rela­tion­ship improves both treat­ment outcomes and the conti­nu­ity of care. The best model is one where the patient can choose their doctor them­selves – includ­ing doctors who oper­ate as entre­pre­neurs. We want to develop personal doctor models and include private prac­ti­tion­ers in well­be­ing services coun­ties as quickly as possi­ble.

For the patient, it does­n’t matter who pays the doctor’s salary. Fast access to care matters. We want to utilize compa­nies, entre­pre­neurs, and orga­ni­za­tions in social, health, and rescue services when­ever it makes sense. Those in need of services will be able to choose and influ­ence the services they receive, service providers will compete with each other to achieve better outcomes, and well­be­ing services coun­ties will learn new and better oper­at­ing models.

When the services of compa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions are utilized correctly and proper procure­ment processes are in place, well­be­ing services coun­ties will be able to save costs. What we need is less expen­sive staff leas­ing and more genuine coop­er­a­tion. We want to expand the use of service vouch­ers and imple­ment a new better reim­burse­ment system for private medical care. 

Tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and new inno­va­tions offer enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve the avail­abil­ity and qual­ity of services. Digi­tal services make every­day life easier, allow­ing patients to consult a doctor via video from their home sofa. This also frees up more time for face-to-face appoint­ments for those who cannot use digi­tal services. We want to imple­ment remote consul­ta­tions in all well­be­ing services coun­ties and increase mobile and home-deliv­ered services, saving both the patien­t’s time and improv­ing treat­ment outcomes.

Services must also work for those who do not want or cannot use digi­tal services. There­fore, care given face-to-face and service guid­ance must be avail­able. Services should be designed so that, for exam­ple, visual or hear­ing impair­ments do not prevent access to services.

To lower the thresh­old for medical consul­ta­tions, we want to extend the open­ing hours of social and health centres to evenings and week­ends. This ensures that services are avail­able in a timely manner and in the right place, reduc­ing the conges­tion of emer­gency services.

In the future, it must also be ensured that special­ized health­care in Finland remains world-class. The main chal­lenge in special­ized health­care is unsus­tain­ably long wait­ing lists. Uncer­tainty about when one can receive treat­ment is an unrea­son­able situ­a­tion for the patient. Kokoomus wants all hospi­tals to publish their wait­ing list statis­tics. It should become stan­dard prac­tice to always inform the patient of the wait­ing list situ­a­tion in other hospi­tals, and if the patient wishes, they should be directed to a hospi­tal with a shorter wait­ing list.

Low Thresh­old Services for Differ­ent Life Situ­a­tions

Chil­dren and young people are the future of Finland of whom we must take partic­u­larly good care of. In the early stages of life, services must be in order, and support must be avail­able. Mater­nity and child health clin­ics must iden­tify the indi­vid­ual needs of the child and the family and respond to them. Services for chil­dren and fami­lies must be devel­oped in a holis­tic child- and family orien­ta­tion , empha­siz­ing preven­tion and early inter­ven­tion. This can be achieved by bring­ing together social services for chil­dren and fami­lies in family centres. Child protec­tion must have the abil­ity to ensure every­one’s right to a safe child­hood.

Low-thresh­old coun­selling and quick access to mental health services must be guar­an­teed for every child and young person who needs them. We want to guar­an­tee that welfare areas have in use the entire service frame­work of the ther­apy guar­an­tee for chil­dren and young people.

We want to ensure that as a senior, one can live an active and mean­ing­ful life. It is essen­tial to ensure good care, where self-deter­mi­na­tion, partic­i­pa­tion, and the abil­ity to influ­ence your own services are real­ized. Every type of service must be taken care of: home care, service hous­ing and round-the-clock care must be good. The impor­tant work and well-being of infor­mal care­givers must be supported with days off and by offer­ing more tailored support and other services.

Service hous­ing must always be orga­nized with reason and a warm heart. Service hous­ing should not lead to, for exam­ple, being placed sepa­rately from one’s part­ner. The real­iza­tion of self-deter­mi­na­tion must be supported, espe­cially for those whose abil­ity to self-deter­mine is reduced due to, for exam­ple, a disabil­ity or memory disor­der. Welfare areas must be able to respond to indi­vid­ual service needs. Increas­ing tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions, expand­ing free­dom of choice, accu­rately mapping of customer needs, and effec­tive service guid­ance are essen­tial.

No one is immune to sudden blows in life. In diffi­cult situ­a­tions, one should not be left alone. The func­tion­al­ity of social services is a measure of society’s compas­sion and civil­ity, often prevent­ing prob­lems from accu­mu­lat­ing into worse ones in the future. In crisis situ­a­tions help must come imme­di­ately. Let’s offer less shuf­fling from one counter to another, queu­ing or fill­ing out forms and more human contact and support.

Social services have a great respon­si­bil­ity, espe­cially for those in the weak­est posi­tions. Those suffer­ing from addic­tions must be helped effec­tively. Well­be­ing services coun­ties must offer help with a low thresh­old for those suffer­ing from addic­tions such as substance abuse and gambling prob­lems. The posi­tion of the home­less and espe­cially the long-term home­less must be improved - welfare areas have a respon­si­bil­ity to ensure a func­tion­ing coop­er­a­tion with munic­i­pal­i­ties and that those under the threat of home­less­ness receive the help they need.

We want domes­tic violence to be better addressed in well­be­ing services coun­ties. Well­be­ing services coun­ties must have the exper­tise to iden­tify and the means to inter­vene in domes­tic violence and violence against women. Preven­tion and support for victims of violence must be imple­mented accord­ing to needs.

Qual­ity and Effec­tive­ness in Services: Utiliz­ing Best Prac­tices, Knowl­edge, and Tech­nol­ogy

Getting an appoint­ment to a doctor or to a mater­nity and child health clinic is not enough. The visit must also be effec­tive: any follow-up actions must be handled smoothly, and no one should fall through the cracks between the services. The care path­way must be seam­less from acute needs to reha­bil­i­ta­tion.

The numer­ous successes of well­be­ing services coun­ties have received very little atten­tion. Despite finan­cial pres­sures, many areas have built some­thing from which others could learn – a new way to bring a home hospi­tal to the patient, handle prob­lems entirely through remote connec­tions or provide help in partic­u­larly chal­leng­ing condi­tions. Good results deserve to be repli­cated in all well­be­ing services coun­ties. If some­thing does­n’t work in one area, it is essen­tial to look at how it has been solved else­where. After the social and health care reform, there is an even better oppor­tu­nity for this.

We want to ensure that the best prac­tices are adopted every­where in Finland. There are still vast untapped oppor­tu­ni­ties in the fields of knowl­edge, tech­nol­ogy, service digi­tal­iza­tion, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. New tech­nolo­gies and the combi­na­tion of data can increase life years, improve the level of care, reduce the work­load of staff, and promote well-being and health. Courage and agility are needed to imple­ment reforms such as qual­ity regis­ters, medica­tion distri­b­u­tion robots, and AI docu­men­ta­tion tech­nol­ogy. The National Coali­tion Party is ready to take deter­mined action to achieve this digi­tal­iza­tion leap.

From both the human and system perspec­tives, it is best if the prob­lem can be prevented entirely. Well­be­ing services coun­ties have a respon­si­bil­ity to promote the well-being and health of their resi­dents in coop­er­a­tion with munic­i­pal­i­ties. The National Coali­tion Party believes that the admin­is­tra­tive bound­aries between munic­i­pal­i­ties and well­be­ing services coun­ties should not become obsta­cles or excuses for not doing every­thing possi­ble in preven­tion.

In the new era, the require­ment to exam­ine the bene­fits and effec­tive­ness of treat­ments and services is also increas­ingly impor­tant. Avail­able resources must be allo­cated as effi­ciently as possi­ble. Profes­sion­als’ time should be spent more on patient care and less on docu­men­ta­tion.

The social and health sector research being conducted now mate­ri­alises as good care in the future. The National Coali­tion Party wants to ensure that health sector research and the poten­tial of new tech­nolo­gies are fully utilized. Accel­er­at­ing research activ­i­ties requires consis­tent prac­tices in both R&D activ­i­ties and coop­er­a­tion with compa­nies across differ­ent welfare areas. Well­be­ing services coun­ties must ensure that private enti­ties are also involved in research activ­i­ties. New inno­va­tions must be used boldly to develop the entire system, services, and care.

Profes­sion­als who Feel Well Can Main­tain Well-being 

Social, health, and rescue services are provided from one person to another. If the employ­ees are not well, the services suffer, and the work­place does not attract new profes­sion­als. The goal is not for the same number of staff to do more and more. We should not run faster but choose a shorter route to the desti­na­tion. The ways of work­ing must be renewed so that there are enough profes­sion­als for the tasks at hand.

Compe­tent colleagues and a good work atmos­phere form the foun­da­tion of a good work envi­ron­ment. A func­tional divi­sion of labour, the abil­ity to influ­ence one’s work, good lead­er­ship, and profes­sional support ensure that people enjoy work­ing in the social care and health care sector. There must be enough time during the work­day to do the job well and ethi­cally. Welfare areas must invest in good lead­er­ship, devel­op­ing work­ing meth­ods, encour­ag­ing career paths, and an incen­tiviz­ing salary system.

In a good work­place, there is enough staff. The National Coali­tion Party is ready to turn every stone to ensure suffi­cient staffing. We must ensure that welfare area employ­ees can focus on tasks that match their exper­tise and, if neces­sary, review the divi­sion of labour. Staff must have oppor­tu­ni­ties for suffi­cient addi­tional and contin­u­ous educa­tion. As Finland increases the amount of profes­sion­als to be educated, we must ensure that the most suit­able indi­vid­u­als are always selected for the social care, health care, and rescue services sectors. We will also recruit trained social and health­care work­ers from abroad and ensure they have suffi­cient language skills and knowl­edge of Finnish work prac­tices.

Strong Rescue Services and Emer­gency Care

Rescue services and emer­gency care exists for the moments when the need is the great­est. There­fore, these services must be reli­able. Rescue services and emer­gency care must be provided with high qual­ity and uniformly through­out Finland. The role of emer­gency care must be devel­oped as an inte­grated part of social, health, and rescue services.

The posi­tion of rescue services must be strong in all welfare areas. We must ensure suffi­cient train­ing for rescuers and develop train­ing. Volun­teer fire brigades play a signif­i­cant role in support­ing rescue oper­a­tions in all well­be­ing services coun­ties and their oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ties must be ensured.

Well­be­ing services coun­ties services must with­stand soci­etal disrup­tions. Well­be­ing services coun­ties contin­gency plans must be updated to be current and ensure the plans consider new modern threat scenar­ios.

Sustain­able Econ­omy is the Foun­da­tion of Well-being

No matter how much one wishes, money does not come from the wall, nor does skilled person­nel appear out of nowhere. Well­be­ing services coun­ties fund­ing comes almost exclu­sively from the state, i.e., current and future taxpay­ers. In 2025, the fund­ing of well­be­ing services coun­ties is 26.2 billion euros, which is almost a third of the state budget. The pace of funds required increases at a rapid pace: by 2.2 billion euros from the year 2024 to 2025. Well­be­ing services areas fund­ing will keep grow­ing in the future, but the growth rate must be slowed. Services cannot be endlessly financed with debt.

A respon­si­ble deci­sion-maker recog­nizes the real­ity of limited resources and strives to develop services to be both higher qual­ity and more cost-effec­tive. We must achieve more and do better with the resources.

The National Coali­tion Party opposes the intro­duc­tion of a regional tax to fund well­be­ing services coun­ties. A regional tax will not solve the fund­ing prob­lems of well­be­ing services areas but will inevitably increase the tax rate. At the same time, a regional tax would lead to a greater diver­gence in taxa­tion and service levels across Finland. In a coun­try the size of Finland, three levels of taxa­tion are not needed.

Balanc­ing the resources with needs requires making choices. Funds should not be wasted on almost empty build­ings, and the use of those prop­er­ties in use must be opti­mized. Effi­ciency and smooth­ness are not just words but solu­tions that are advanced together with all deci­sion-makers and staff.

Services are never free, but in some units, the price is higher than else­where. If, for exam­ple, fill­ing a tooth costs signif­i­cantly more in one loca­tion than another, the well­be­ing services county must address the reason for the cost differ­ence. Unit cost calcu­la­tion is a new tool for well­be­ing services coun­ties, allow­ing genuine inter­ven­tion in those units, where effi­ciency can be improved. Well­be­ing services coun­ties must focus on produc­tiv­ity devel­op­ment, espe­cially in units where produc­tiv­ity is lowest. At the same time, unit cost calcu­la­tion provides a way of know­ing when it is best to purchase a service from private providers instead of produc­ing it in-house.

In the long term, cost growth is curbed by preven­tive work and shift­ing the focus of services from correc­tive to earlier-stage services. In the short term, slow­ing cost growth requires boldly adopt­ing new oper­at­ing models.

The best tools for curb­ing cost growth also support build­ing better services. With best prac­tices and cost account­ing, it is known where and how services need to be devel­oped. Multi-provider models and better procure­ment can reduce costs and allow us to harness all the resources and person­nel avail­able to produce social and health services.

Success­ful procure­ments lead to less need for tempo­rary staff in well­be­ing services coun­ties and better services. Well­be­ing services coun­ties must ensure that procure­ments are conducted so that even smaller compa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions have a genuine oppor­tu­nity to partic­i­pate. Let’s ensure that procure­ment processes have in their require­ments only essen­tial crite­ria rele­vant to the qual­ity of the service.

More content in the same category