If night duty is abolished, will queues increase during the day. How can you get treatment at night if you don't have a car. Will there be just a chimney left if everything is cut? The people of Salo told HS Turku what kind of issues they were worried about in the working group's presentation.
Salon friends going to high school Oona Saarelainen and Veera Kulmala are dismayed to hear that the working group presents big pruning to the Finnish hospital network. Although the report does not directly name hospitals, one of the qualifying targets would be Salo hospital and its 24-hour emergency department.
“What? Quite shocking”, exclaims Saarelainen.
Young people who are still minors find the idea that in the event of an illness or accident requiring a visit to the emergency room, they should go all the way from Turku to get treatment especially unsafe. It would also feel unsafe if your guardian or family member had to be treated elsewhere than at Salo.
“My loved one had a riding accident and suffered several fractures. The accident happened in the evening and he was taken from Salo to Turku for surgery. I was sad that I didn't get to see him in the beginning. It would have been easier in Salo.”
The distance from Salo to Turku is about 55 kilometers.
Veijo Hiilovaara went to Salo market on Thursday to buy herrings. At the same time, he had time to say that he does not feel very strongly about the possible abolition of the 24/7 emergency service.
Salon Lives in Haliko Veijo Hiilovaaraa the proposal to cut down the 24-hour emergency service is absolutely disgusting.
“People need help here too. Under no circumstances should that activity be discontinued.”
Hiilovaara reflects that the service has always been able to be maintained in Salo before, it would be important to try the same now. After all, it is the economic area of a large group of people, he reasons.
At the end of last year, Salo had slightly more than 51,000 inhabitants.
“I do understand that there are always people who go for help in vain. I'm not like that, I go too late. That's what I've been told.”
Hiilovaara fears that an entire city will now be killed. Always before, it has gone so that services have been removed piece by piece and eventually people disappear.
“First we take a shop in a small village, then a post office and a village school. Then the whole village dies. Now it's about the same thing. Soon you can fly the flag for the whole city at half-mast.”
A seller of fish at the market Santtu Lindström agrees. The importance of hospital emergency care is emphasized if something serious happens.
“In my opinion, you get better treatment at Salo Hospital than in an ambulance. However, the journey to Turku takes time.”
Fishmonger Santtu Lindström and customer Veijo Hiilovaara say that the hospital has “always” had a night-time emergency.
Thursday afternoon the sun has set the people of Salo on the move for beautiful winter weather. On a weekday, you can see a lot of senior citizens in the center, some of them have a walker, many of them have walking sticks to support their steps on the slippery asphalt.
A person who moved to Finland from Ukraine six years ago is frolicking on the bridge crossing the river Tanja Bielikova. He has been following the news and knows that Salo Hospital's night-time emergency department is threatened with downsizing. It has raised concerns and questions in him.
“Then what happens to the queues? During the day, you already sometimes have to wait in line for 3–4 hours. Will the queues be even longer then? And if you don't have a car, how can you get to Turku at night, if you need treatment then?”
Tanja Bielikova, who lives in Salo, is worried whether the queues during the day will increase even more if treatment is not available at night.
In addition to the 24-hour emergency service, Salo Hospital has surgery and internal medicine outpatient clinics and in-patient departments. The hospital also operates a surgery unit.
The hospital is administratively part of Turku University Central Hospital (Tyks).
For the people of Salo the show about the 24-hour emergency department's run-down feels like slapping a rag in the face. The hospital has wanted to produce versatile specialized medical care services.
At the moment, major renovation and new construction work is underway in the Salo hospital complex, as a result of which Salo is about to build a hospital designed to combine basic health care and specialized medical care.
A major renovation is underway at Salo Hospital. The welfare district estimated last year that the construction project will be completed for hospital use in stages between 2025 and 2027.
The investments have created hope and confidence in the future of Salo's medical care. Now the trust has been broken.
“When the city of Salo still maintained services, everything worked. Now that Varha (Varsinais-Finnish welfare area) is working here, all the money goes to the highly paid managers. And there are a lot of them,” Hiilovaara scolds.
Pauli Haapaniitty has used the services of the Salo hospital many times, including at night. He says, however, that at the stage when the treatment has already arrived, it doesn't matter if it's in Salo or Turku.
The hospital a person who lives in Salo Kuusjoki steps out of the doors Pauli Haapaniitty. This time he went to the hospital for a day visit.
But there are those night visits too.
“Twice I have been brought to Salo hospital by ambulance at night. Here I have been examined and then sent to Tyks for a ball extension. I have received good treatment there. In that sense, it doesn't matter where I am treated.”
But if the round-the-clock emergency service at Salo Hospital were to end completely, it could still be tragic, according to Haapaniity.
“Someone may need quick treatment at night, even if their life is in danger. Turku is not that far away, but things can sometimes depend on minutes.”
Besides, Haapaniitty reminds us, things that are given away usually cannot be returned.
“When something is taken away all the time, soon all that's left is a chimney.”
Read more: The fate of five hospitals is at stake in the working group's presentation
Read more: Henriksson: The Rkp does not agree to the presented reduction of the hospital network
#Turku #Shocking #people #Salo #waiting #hospital39s #decision #fear
