According to the Ministry of Finance, nurses and doctors elected to the regional board may not necessarily serve as members of the regional board. According to the medical association, the situation makes no sense.
Medical Association according to the Ministry of Finance’s interpretation of regional government membership is restrictive and open to interpretation. The union formulated its position in an open letter on Monday.
It is about whether, for example, nurses and doctors are allowed to act as members of regional governments after the turn of the year. According to the Ministry of Finance, they may not, because “a person working under a regional government cannot be a member of a regional government at the same time”. This position was formulated in a guidance letter at the end of November.
Section 78 of the Welfare Area Act states that a person employed by a welfare area who works directly under the regional board is not eligible for election to the regional board.
According to the union, social security personnel who transfer to the service of the welfare region will generally remain eligible for election to regional governments.
Political branch manager Heikki Pärnanen The medical association says that the ministry’s interpretation is very literal.
“Based on that interpretation, not even a facility cleaner can be in the regional government,” he says.
“This interpretation limits the participation rights of approximately 200,000 people, if the legislation remains as it is.”
Pärnänen points out that hundreds of health and safety professionals have already been elected to regional governments: doctors, nurses and rescue personnel.
Now, professionals have already resigned from the regional government, and according to rumors, even more are about to resign. The association has also received inquiries from its members about whether doctors and other social security personnel who move to the service of the welfare regions are eligible for election in the future.
On the other hand the ministry’s guidance letter states that a person can only be ineligible for a certain board but not for the entire regional board.
Probably for this reason, for example Etelä-Saimaa magazine the fire inspector interviewed interprets that he is eligible for election to the regional board because he works under the safety board. Instead, the doctor and nurse interviewed by the magazine have interpreted that they will have to resign from the regional government.
According to Pärnänen, the situation makes no sense. According to him, no one should be fired because of a double role at this point.
Turku university professor of public law Janne Salminen states in the expert opinion requested by the union that the interpretation of eligibility made by the ministry is not proportionate in terms of the participation rights of individuals.
On the other hand, according to him, the electoral qualifications of the regional board can be justifiably somewhat wider than for the regional council. The purpose of this arrangement is to secure the public reliability of decision-making. Still, the restrictions should basically be minimal or at least strictly limited, the statement says.
Regarding the boards, Salminen states that, unlike in municipal administration, where several different boards operate under the municipal government, there is only one mandatory board in welfare areas. For this reason, the provision on election eligibility works in a significantly different way in the Welfare Act than in the Municipal Act.
Ministry of Finance department head of the municipal department Jani Pitkäniemi tells HS via e-mail that the Minister of Municipalities Sirpa Paatero (sd) asked the ministry a few weeks ago to start a research project on the election eligibility of members of the boards of the welfare regions. The project’s results are supposed to be available to the next government when it starts.
In Pärnänen’s opinion, the solution to the matter is simple: it is up to the regional council to decide on the matter.
“If they interpret it so that all members are directly subordinate to the government, let them declare the staff members of the welfare area ineligible for election,” he says.
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