No welfare without healthy common sense
That famous Finnish common sense is needed now, if ever. Why? Because the county elections concern the national economy, health, and safety - such vital matters that this ever-lasting healthcare and social welfare mess is something to be ashamed about. No party deserves style points for this. We don’t either.
The Government has decided to “solve” the problem by building a new, regional layer of administration. Whether it will increase care and security, that is still unknown. The only thing that seems threateningly obvious is that bureaucracy and costs will get out of hand. In other words, services will not be closer, queues will not be shorter, and the elderly will not be getting more of the care they need.
Every right-minded Finn understands that no one will be cured, and fire safety will not be strengthened by increasing bureaucracy and forms.
Therefore, common sense is needed. Common sense has been a Finnish resource throughout time, and it works at all times. It does not have a geographical address or postal code. It provides a glimpse of understanding where gibberish has taken power. At its best, it exceeds regional borders at the speed of light. It loves solutions and hates vanity and pomposity.
If you believe in Finnish common sense, vote for the National Coalition Party. We want care and security to be increased and unnecessary administration to be reduced, regardless of the number of layers. For us, the most important aspect is that, instead of the machinery, people, customers, and professionals retain their working capacity and are well.
Therefore, the heart is on the right - in the county elections too.
THE OBJECTIVE OF THE NATIONAL COALITION PARTY is to make Finland a place where people are well. We want people to have easy access to care and that the limited resources are sufficient for the service needs of the ageing population. To achieve the objective, the social welfare, healthcare, and rescue services must seamlessly work together.
FOR US, IT IS IMPORTANT that users of healthcare and social welfare services have an opportunity to influence their services. It is important for the National Coalition Party that people have access to services when they need them. It is not significant whether the services are produced by a welfare area, a company or entrepreneur, or a healthcare and social welfare services organisation.
FUNCTIONAL SERVICES are the result of collaboration between skilled and healthy personnel. Therefore, welfare areas must place effort in occupational well-being. For example, good leadership and new operating methods can improve both employees’ well-being and the quality of services.
A VOTE FOR THE NATIONAL COALITION PARTY is a vote for sustainable economic management in these elections too. We do not want the poorly managed economy of welfare areas to cause Finnish services to suffer, the tax burden to grow, or the Government’s indebtedness to accelerate. The National Coalition Party says no to provincial tax because it would unavoidably lead to higher taxation on Finnish work.
WITHOUT SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY, we would not have the newest incubators for premature babies, the world’s leading cancer treatment or free dental care for all children and adolescents. When the economy is in order, and people have work, there is also enough money for services that are important to all of us.
1. Vote for shorter queues, not for heavier administration models.
In our opinion, the most important objective for reforming the healthcare and social welfare services is to get people from queues to care more quickly.
Every Finn should be able to rely on the fact that necessary help, care, and treatment is available in both national languages when they are needed. The National Coalition Party wishes to particularly emphasise preventative services because the sooner problems are sorted, more humane and economic expenses are sufficient. In addition to prevention, an important part of the entity is rehabilitation and health promotion at one’s own initiative, such as adequate exercise. It must be easy and effortless to access services.
The National Coalition Party would reform services for the 21st century by further utilising current knowledge, technology, and artificial intelligence. Information must easily move within and between systems. We must learn from previous, often poorly successful, information system projects.
Digital and mobile services are a way of significantly improving access to care. For example, remote doctor and nurse receptions can facilitate patients’ everyday lives, reduce costs, and increase equality among people. Particular attention should be paid to information security when developing welfare areas’ information systems.
Proceeding with these methods:
- Improve availability of services and facilitate access to care by, for example, introducing remote receptions of healthcare and social welfare service centres in all welfare areas.
- Improve access to mental health services nationwide by implementing a statutory therapy guarantee.
- Ensure sufficient support services for families with children to facilitate their everyday lives and prevent the need for more intense child protection services.
- Place an effort on the quality of home care, sheltered housing and 24h care. Effectively intervene in violations and other faults in services.
- Continue to maintain pupil welfare services’ psychologist and curator services close in the everyday life of children and adolescents. Also recognise students as a customer group of welfare areas.
- Improve the position of caregivers and support their coping. Offer sufficient support and services to those living at home, for example, with service vouchers.
- From the very beginning, services must be developed to be accessible and understandable as well as, for example, accessible to vision and hearing-impaired people and by considering the unique needs of elderly people.
- Ensure that help is available at a low threshold to people with addictions, such as people suffering from substance abuse and gambling problems.
2. Vote for a person, not a form.
We want users of healthcare and social welfare services to have even more opportunities in the future to influence the services through freedom of choice.
If necessary, it must be possible to choose a different service provider if the services do not work for one reason or another. People’s possibility to choose their own service provider will encourage welfare areas to organise services in a high quality and accessible manner. New innovations of better-operating methods are formed when there is pressure to develop them. The continuous development of services is, above all, an advantage for service users.
The National Coalition Party trusts that the best result is achieved with seamless collaboration between the welfare area, companies, and organisations. The entity producing the services is not significant. For the National Coalition Party, the most important thing is that services are available whenever they are needed.
This is how it is achieved:
- Promote people’s genuine opportunity to choose in healthcare and social welfare services. At the same time, the opportunities to safeguard local services will strengthen.
- Give people the opportunity to influence their services by, for example, extending the use of service vouchers and developing the Kela compensation of private medical care. The National Coalition Party disapproves of the reduction of Kela compensation.
- For example, in the services for disabled and elderly people, utilise a so-called personal budget, which the customer can use within agreed boundary conditions for acquiring services that promote functional capacity and facilitate everyday life.
- Monitor the quality of services regardless of the provider. Effectively intervene in observed faults.
3. Vote for action, not bureaucracy
Few Finns are regular customers of rescue services, but everyone appreciates that emergency medical and rescue services are quickly and professionally available when they are needed. Professionals of the rescue services are often the first to encounter people who need urgent assistance.
It is important to us that, when developing welfare areas, the position of rescue services is strong, and they are not side-lined by healthcare and social welfare services when developing welfare areas. Rescue services must be continued to be produced in a high quality and consistent manner throughout Finland. The operational readiness of rescue services and assistance must be ensured both in cities and rural areas.
We promise to ensure that the resources of rescue services will continue to remain sufficient. It is crucial to the National Coalition Party that rescue services do not become a separate function within the organisation of a welfare area. The collaboration of rescue and emergency medical services must be utilised to its full capacity.
What if we did as follows:
- With sufficient funding, training, and personnel resources, ensure that rescue and emergency medical services are available throughout Finland quickly and consistently.
- Produce rescue services in a high quality and cost-effective manner while ensuring the skills and safety of professionals.
- Deepen the collaboration of healthcare and social welfare services and rescue services so that the services operate seamlessly for the customer.
- Safeguard the funding and operating requirements of contract fire departments in the welfare areas to be established.
- Ensure the welfare areas’ possibility to anticipate and prepare for disturbances and exceptional conditions together with other authorities.
4. In favour of a sustainable economy, against wasteful spending.
The National Coalition Party wants services to be produced in a high-quality manner while also being cost-effective so that there are enough for everyone in need.
Taxes cannot be increased indefinitely. Therefore, decision-making requires decision-makers who can reform operating methods in order to make a limited amount of money achieve more and better.
Healthy competition between service providers is a method for improving quality and cost-efficiency in healthcare and social welfare services. Therefore, the establishment of fair competition and functional markets must be promoted in welfare areas. Procurements must be implemented so that smaller companies also have the opportunity to participate in tenders. At the same time, it must be ensured that sufficient procurement skills are available in the areas.
We do not want Finnish taxation to increase due to the poor economic management of welfare areas. We say no to provincial tax because it would unavoidably lead to higher work taxation.
We propose the following:
- Ensure sustainable economic management in welfare areas, too, so that the Government’s indebtedness can be reduced and tax increases can be avoided.
- Utilise companies and organisations in the services of a welfare area to improve quality and cost-efficiency in actual healthcare and social welfare services and support operations, such as facility, meal and cleaning services.
- Develop welfare areas in such a way that resources are targeted even better to services rather than administration.
- Require full transparency and openness of expenses in all welfare areas. In this way, the best and most resultful operating models can be quickly introduced.
- Give up the preparations of a provincial tax because, according to experts, its introduction would likely lead to an increase in work taxation.
5. Who will be healthy if the personnel are not healthy?
We want social welfare, health, and rescue service professionals to cope and enjoy their work. The requirement for services produced in a high-quality manner is healthy personnel, which is sufficient to carry out the required duties. An important part of successful services is genuine and caring encounters between service users and professionals.
The most important prerequisites of occupational well-being are good leadership and precise operating models, which personnel also have the possibility to influence. Leadership must be based on current knowledge and sector expertise. Healthy and motivated personnel will carry out their duties better, and this will also be visible in the services’ quality and results.
For occupational well-being and the prevention of unnecessary stress, it is important that every worker can focus as much as possible on work duties that correspond to their skills. It is also essential that supervisors and colleagues provide support to succeed in work duties.
Would it work in this way:
- Focus on good leadership, the development of operating methods, and the payroll system’s encouragement to improve personnel’s occupational well-being and work comfort. Personnel must be awarded for good performance to develop both themselves and the work environment.
- Ensure that the welfare area’s employees can focus on work duties that correspond to their skills. If necessary, review personnel’s work distribution.
- Particularly strengthen the attractiveness of the healthcare and social welfare sector by, for example, developing training and career paths and increasing the amount of healthcare sector training.
- Offer personnel opportunities for sufficient follow-up and supplementary training.
- Also, recruit qualified healthcare and social welfare workers from abroad. Ensure that they have sufficient linguistic proficiency and Finnish work practice skills. Ensure that the most suitable individuals are always selected for the healthcare, social welfare, and rescue service sector.
Common sense has been a Finnish resource throughout time, and it works at all times. It does not have a geographical address or postal code. At its best, it exceeds regional borders at the speed of light. It loves solutions and hates vanity and pomposity. It does not believe that a new layer of administration or any other walls will cure anyone. It knows that queues will not shorten with forms.
Matters tend to be solved with common sense; many subjects of fuss will not be fussed over. Functional care and security require more understanding and heart than political bureaucracy.