Saturday guests STM’s Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki: The government could have left less attention to the details of the interest rate crisis

Social- and a leading expert from the Ministry of Health (STM) Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki says the government could have left less detailed treatment for the coronary crisis.

He served as STM’s strategy director until last October, and has been throughout the pandemicone of Finland’s most important coroners.

“Big crises are always cross-administrative. The interest rate crisis is a mega-class crisis in which the government took on a big role at the outset, but when the crisis lasts, it is no longer always appropriate at the same level, ”says Voipio-Pulkki.

According to him, the government has other tasks for which it must spend its time. He believes there are changes ahead in the system for managing a protracted crisis.

“In future, the competent authorities must have a sufficiently intact mandate to deal with the crisis. Now this has not quite worked out when the illogicalities of the legislation have become apparent. ”

Voipio-Pulkki says that he understands well the pains of politicians with the decisions, because the crisis has been extremely wide-ranging. There are several perspectives and truths about limitations.

In the end, someone just has to appreciate what is most important, Voipio-Pulkki says.

“In a democratic system, that task ultimately belongs to politicians.”

He says that the law should also make it clearer under what mandate, for example, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) can instruct other authorities.

“One has to think about whether THL’s role should be increased. I still can’t say if I should, ”Voipio-Pulkki ponders.

“In any case, the Emergency Preparedness Act and the Communicable Diseases Act need to be reformed. They are pretty blunt tools for such a crisis. Exceptions are either valid or not, but modern crises are something in between. ”

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“The first patients came in the morning, and soon we unfortunately had to find that there was no longer such a terrible need for treatment.”

Medical and Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki, PhD, has been a key coroner for two years, but has given few interviews.

He was supposed to be out of work for at least part of a long time ago, but due to the coronavirus, his career has continued. He will soon turn 67 years old.

In October, he resigned as STM’s strategy director and is now working mainly in the ministry on the corona epidemic.

Prior to his career as a civil servant, he saved lives as a doctor from the late 1970s to the 2000s.

“Throughout my clinical medical career, I have worked in emergency departments, cardiac monitoring, intensive care, and to some extent intensive care.”

He has also been involved in about a hundred scientific publications, mainly related to cardiovascular, and has directed numerous doctoral dissertations.

Voipio-Pulkki especially remember one moment from his doctor’s time.

The moment was on September 28, 1994 at about two o’clock at night. He was working that night as a senior doctor on duty at the Department of Internal Medicine Intensive Care at Turku University Central Hospital, when a vague call came to the ward stating that the ship had sunk.

“The attendant on duty understood to put on the radio and we realized this wasn’t part of the exercise that was supposed to start the next day.”

The sunken ship was Estonia. More than 850 people died.

Under the leadership of Voipio-Pulk, the ward began to be prepared for the flood of patients. At five o’clock the site was fully prepared as well as an analysis of who could move out of the department if the need arose.

“In that situation, the emotional state was such a deep peace that here it is now and the thing is being taken care of,” he recalls.

“The first patients came in the morning, and soon we unfortunately had to find that there was no longer such a terrible need for treatment.”

Best Voipio-Pulkki is known from the coronation situation information held by STM and THL every Thursday at 10 am, where he calmly tells what the corona situation in Finland is like at the moment.

The info is pretty much the brainchild of Voipio-Pulk, as he has led an epidemic snapshot and modeling group that is central to coronary care.

The group includes researchers and experts from, among others, THL, hospital districts, cities and universities.

The information compiled by the group and the scenarios developed by THL have been used after the Board has made restriction and recommendation decisions.

Voipio-Pulkk is described as the main author of hybrid strategies for corona treatment, but he has participated in the containment activities as a more informative expert. He has not been involved in drafting the vaccine strategy criticized by THL.

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“When a nation is in crisis, is the controversy ultimately good for mental sustainability?”

Voipio-Pulkki considers spring 2020 to be the biggest success of Finland ‘s corona measures.

“The Finnish system showed its strength at that very beginning, ie both the decision-making system and the residents. There was little information, but we were able to protect the population. ”

In Finland, the death rate from the coronavirus is the third lowest in Europe in relation to the population.

“The time to analyze the biggest failure is not yet ripe.”

However, he says that after spring 2020, the authorities could have been more successful in communication.

“It’s academically interesting to go into controversy. But when a nation is in crisis, is the controversy ultimately good for mental sustainability? On the other hand, there is freedom of speech and the great value of having different arguments put forward. Recently, however, we could have come a little better to come to common recommendations with all the preconditions and reservations. ”

Several Officials working outside STM have said in background discussions that Voipio-Pulkki is invaluable to STM. He is not dared to retire, it is alleged.

“Poof,” Voipio-Pulkki laughs at the allegations. “I’m not taking a stand on this.”

Voipio-Pulkk is described as an old-time principal or priest, who is also appreciated by many of those who have not liked STM’s corona activities. Cold-nerved, very intelligent, extremely enduring, and unwavering, are the words used to describe him.

“He is the mind and brain of STM. Without him, the ministry’s activities would have been even more confusing and the strategy would probably have been even more difficult to understand, ”says one who has long followed corona activities within the state administration.

There are also influencers who consider Voipio-Pulkk to be self-respecting, formal but also straightforward. He could become subject to orders in the middle of the night.

STM has been the subject of severe criticism, especially since the beginning of the year, when the omicron transformation expired in a few weeks the corona strategy based on Finland’s tracing and testing, in which Voipio-Pulkkinen had also participated.

Did STM stick to the test, trace, batch, and care strategy for too long?

“Was it not the case that local authorities in particular have a quorum and are obliged to act in such a situation. They used the powers provided by the Communicable Diseases Act as they should. On the other hand, we want national policy-type guidance, and therefore the strategy has been updated, ”Voipio-Pulkki explains.

THL: n manager Mika Salminen said in an interview with HS a couple of weeks ago, the STM has seized too much power, forgotten young people and not taken enough account of the impact of the actions.

Voipio-Pulkki says that he has nothing to add to what STM’s Chief of Staff Kirsi Varhila replied to Salminen.

According to Varhila, STM has proposed to the government that responsibility be shared, but to no avail. Varhila says that STM has asked THL for assessments of the various measures, in which THL could have expressed its views on the effects on different age groups.

He says that STM is guided above all by the public authorities ’duty to protect life and health, but at the same time one should be able to hit the new disease all the way to the necessity and proportionality of the action.

“It must be possible to treat different sectors in the same way as possible. It has not been entirely successful because of the different legal bases in different areas. ”

“The legal text of the hybrid strategy is pretty wise in stating that there is a right to learn as knowledge increases.”

VOIPIO BEAM says that there has been a lot of talk about the lack of intensive care capacity, but not so much about the problems with basic services that arose during the crisis.

“However, perhaps an even bigger problem than intensive care during a pandemic has been related to the capacity of basic health services, social services, home care and supported housing services.”

He says there has been good information about intensive care and the system has worked very effectively, but THL is not collecting as much information about what is happening in basic social and health care.

“We have a lot of know-how, but it cannot be used to our maximum advantage because there is not enough information about what is happening, know-how and being done anywhere. The next crisis could be someone else. Then we must have just as much national know-how and cooperation to deal with that crisis. THL is our statutory registry and statistical authority, and its ability to provide up-to-date information needs to be considered extensively after the crisis. ”

Voipio-Pulkki considers the criticism received by STM to be humane.

“We are all tired of this. The frustrations are completely understandable, but maybe you should look ahead and not get caught up in all the past now, ”he says.

“The most important thing is that those on the front line must always be changed from time to time. It is the instruction of the old emergency doctor and the warlord. ”