Hus | Hus is getting more money: Deputy Mayor of Helsinki Daniel Sazonov promises “relief”

Helsinki and Uusimaa’s hospital district (Hus) will probably receive at least some additional funding from the city of Helsinki and the welfare districts, which can be used to cancel some of the significant savings measures.

Deputy Mayor of Helsinki Social and Health Services Daniel Sazonov According to (kok), the regions of Uusimaa could, with these prospects, give Hus “some kind of relief”.

“However, the possible additional money must be allocated where the savings most directly affect service production. For example, in Helsinki, they are very concerned about Malmi’s joint duty,” he says.

Husi’s board of directors decided at its meeting on Monday return for example, for the new preparation of the savings list regarding the abolition of emergency rooms in Malmi, Lohja and Porvoo.

However, the board of directors requires that negotiations with the city of Helsinki and the welfare regions begin immediately regarding additional funding.

Hus has calculated that with the current funding, it should find savings for next year totaling around 95 million euros.

Read more: Husi’s savings list came back like a boomerang: Now we’re saving more money

From austerity measures It’s still hard to avoid in Hus, thinks Sazonov.

The first negotiations between the Uusimaa regions and Husi will probably take place already this week, he says.

Hus organizes the special hospital care of Uusimaa’s welfare areas and the city of Helsinki, which will start operating at the beginning of next year. With the Social Security reform, the state will distribute the money to the regions in the future, and the regions of Uusimaa will give part of their money to Hus.

Sazonov emphasizes that from the beginning of next year, Helsinki, the four welfare regions and Husi will have a completely new kind of “connection of fate” thanks to the new funding model. Every additional euro allocated to specialized medical care must be adjusted for basic health care and social services and vice versa.

Thus, according to Sazonov, the additional funding that Husi is hoping for is largely absent from some other social security services. According to him, it would be important to find a balanced solution in which critical services can be handled but, for example, Helsinki’s health centers would not be subjected to unreasonable cost-saving pressure.

“Here, we transfer euros between different services,” he sums up.

Something according to Sazonov, the increase in funding, which has arisen after the calculations have been refined from the spring situation, could be used to ease Hus’s situation.

According to preliminary calculations, with the new social security model, the whole of Uusimaa will receive about 30 million euros more from the state next year than was anticipated in the spring, says Sazonov. Of this, the share of special medical treatment would be around 10 million and it could be directed to Hus.

Even if Helsinki and the welfare regions are unable to regulate how the money is ultimately used when increasing funding, Sazonov is confident that Husi’s government will allocate any additional money sensibly and effectively.

He also calls for the state’s responsibility in the case. According to Sazonov, the State Finance Act, for example, does not sufficiently take into account the population growth of the Uusimaa region in the funding for the coming years. He also criticized the fact that the university hospital supplement is planned to start only in 2024.

“All in all, the funding of Husi is not only a question between the regions and Husi, but the state has the ultimate financial responsibility for Uusimaa’s social and health services.”

Decisions Husi’s funding and services belong to Uusimaa’s welfare areas and Helsinki, says the Minister of Family and Basic Services Aki Lindén (s.d.) .

According to him, the welfare regions of Uusimaa and Helsinki now have to give Hus more money for next year than they originally thought, because the state will pay the money to the regions afterwards.

“The regions must not make Hus cut 95 million euros. I don’t take a position on that, whether a smaller amount would be more reasonable,” says Lindén.

Last week, a group of New Zealand MPs from the coalition demanded more money from the state for Hus.

Read more: Should the state give Hus more money? This is how MPs respond

In the welfare regions’ funding model, the funding base for social and health care is increased annually by the estimated increase in the need for services and the level of costs.

In practice, according to Lindén, the regions of Uusimaa must make a deficit budget for next year, which will turn into a surplus in 2025.

According to the minister, the idea of ​​the whole social security reform has been to strengthen the basic level, i.e. for example health centers and care for the elderly, so that in the long term the costs of specialized medical care can be saved.

He still does not look favorably on plans to abolish, for example, joint duty.

“A certain shift of focus to basic medical care is justified. However, it cannot mean that the already overcrowded emergency rooms will be abolished.”