Medical care Alarms over minor ailments congest Hush’s first aid – “Nobody can handle this from one month to the next”

First aid The number of tasks has increased considerably this year in the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (Hus). Growth has continued during the autumn.

For example, there were 16,821 emergency care tasks in October, compared with 14,321 in October 2020 and 15,329 in October 2019.

An average increase of almost 8% in the number of tasks puts an extreme strain on emergency care.

“After all, we’re survivors, but now we’re going all the way to the upper limits. Yesterday’s Tuesday was also incredibly busy, ”says Hus’s chief medical officer. Markku Kuisma.

Alarms the amount means in practice that there is no time left for staff to eat or go to the toilet. The day trainings planned for the day will be missed.

“We have such a good team that it can handle the deadline, but no one can handle it from month to month,” says Kuisma.

He does not consider it appropriate to increase the number of ambulances. Unfortunately, many of the alerts are ones that could be handled elsewhere in health care.

According to Kuisma, there have been changes in society during the corona epidemic that have led to different behaviors in the population.

Coronary patients do not explain the increase in emergency care tasks. In job volumes, their share of growth is only about eight percent.

“But during the epidemic, primary care and emergency services have become so stressed that people in need of care can’t get in touch. Then they turn to the emergency center, ”says Kuisma.

In emergency centers let’s say people contact it in real distress. The note of the conversation may not turn into health counseling, and then you can go to the emergency room for an alert.

A survey conducted by Hus in October-November revealed that 5.2 per cent of current emergency care tasks were so-called unnecessary alarms. These alerts may delay the start of treatment for a critically ill patient.

“Unnecessary alarms are a common phenomenon. It is very typical for a person to call an emergency center when he or she has a high fever, for example, ”says Kuisma.

Part of the reason for the current development, Kuisma holds, is that people have bought all kinds of healthcare home appliances at home, which from time to time give different results.

“We have had home appliances that measure blood sugar or blood pressure for a long time, but now we can order a variety of home appliances from China,” says Kuisma.

First aid the number of tasks is also burdened by alerts from many nursing homes. The staff will alert the ambulance to check the patient’s condition, even if the nursing homes have their own health staff.

“Unfortunately, medication errors often occur in nursing homes, where the patient receives the neighbor’s medication or their own medication twice. Instead of calling your own doctor or the Poisons Information Center, call the emergency center. ”

The number of tasks in primary care is also somewhat increased by the rather lack of understanding of the Finnish-speaking population about the operating model of Finnish health care. An ambulance is called in a fever or due to a minor injury, even if the incident is treated at the nearest health center, emergency room, or even a home clinic.