Policy|Defense Forces
The Defense Forces marvel at a request for official assistance made by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health more than a week ago.
Defense Forces has not yet received the first request for assistance from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health precautionary request.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health sent a letter to the Defense Administration last Tuesday asking the Defense Forces to prepare for official assistance under the Communicable Diseases Act.
Minister of Family and Basic Services Krista Kiurun (sd) and Head of Department Taneli Puumalainen The letter, signed by
The ministry is asking for help with testing, infection tracking and vaccination activities related to the coronavirus epidemic.
Read more: The Chief Medical Officer of Helsinki has reservations about the request for help from the Finnish Defense Forces – “We also have lobby officers behind us”
HS information according to the request has aroused surprise in the Defense Forces. It is suspected that the Applicants were not properly acquainted with the activities of the Defense Forces.
It is feared that the provision of exceptionally large-scale official assistance will seriously hamper the training of conscripts and the preparation for the main task of the Defense Forces. It is also unclear on what basis the need for 5,000 people and two months is based.
The General Staff will be informed by e-mail that the assessment of official assistance will take into account, in addition to the resources available, the fact that the provision of assistance will not endanger the performance of the main task of the Defense Forces or the health of personnel.
“At this stage, it is impossible to speculate on the quality or quantity of official assistance to be provided.”
Ministry of Defense Director of the National Defense Unit, Brigadier General Sami Nurmi recalls that this was not an actual request for assistance but a preparation for it.
“The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health does not make a request for official assistance, but local authorities regionally.”
In practice, this means, for example, municipalities or hospital districts.
The Defense Forces provide official assistance hundreds of times a year. The most common applicant is the police. However, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health would be a new partner for the Defense Forces in official assistance.
“We have had a wish for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health that if requests for official assistance start to come, they would have the opportunity to receive some kind of centralized prioritization, because there may be so many that you have to think about the order in which they are made,” says Nurmi.
He recalls that at the beginning of January, more than 12,000 recruits entered the service, and the training of medical and paramedical staff will be binding on the start of training.
“In practice, we would have to suspend training. It would be really difficult – one might say impossible – for such an educational organization to suddenly detach such an amount. Of course it will be done if it is ordered to do so, but it will have a significant impact on education. ”
Nurmi estimates that a more realistic estimate of the amount of official assistance would flow in tens or hundreds of people.
Coronavirus epidemic In the early stages, the Defense Forces provided official assistance in isolating the Uusimaa region. However, it happened later in the spring, when training for the conscription batch was on.
Another problem may be that help has been sought for vaccination, testing and tracing. The implementation of the former two could be illegal. The reason is that conscripts must not be used for dangerous official assistance.
According to an assessment by Defense Forces lawyers, the use of conscripts for vaccination and testing activities is a dangerous task because the conscript is in the same condition as a potentially ill person.
In the Armed Forces there is also a serious coronavirus epidemic right now.
Read more: Healthy conscripts of the Armored Brigade now sleep in the tent because the interior is needed for the sick and exposed – the coronation situation in the garrisons is the worst during the whole epidemic
During the first week and a half of January, there were about 1,200 cases of coronavirus in the garrisons, of which a thousand were conscripts and the rest were staff.
The Defense Forces’ own medical staff is currently involved in the reception arrangements for newcomers and the treatment of the sick. Vaccinations of own personnel have also been started in the garrisons.
Nurmi also does not consider it sensible to invite health care reservists to vaccinate:
“It would mean that we would probably take them out of the civilian duties of a nurse or doctor. That would not be appropriate for our society. ”
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