Wellbeing services counties are in charge of our social and healthcare services, which means that the county and municipal elections to be held in April are all about social and healthcare services. The candidates elected to the councils of wellbeing services counties will make decisions on issues that are very important to us and our loved ones. Municipal bodies, on the other hand, will influence services such as early childhood education and care and preventative healthcare.
At the moment, the discussions about social and healthcare services are dominated by the state’s hurried need to achieve massive savings in a short amount of time. This rush makes it harder to find sustainable and effective solutions even if the wellbeing services counties had the chance to develop their services in the long term.
The wellbeing services counties have barely started their operations, and they must be given a chance to succeed. This is also related to honouring legally protected regional self-governance. Social and health care services do not need even one more poorly prepared cost-cutting decision dictated from above. These render the self-governance as nothing more than lip service.
Social and health care services are much too valuable to be used as political pawns. Decisions cannot be made by walking over those who understand their actual impacts at the grassroots level. We must go back to basics: scientific research, good governance and careful consideration.
Even when the state acts in its own way, the county council representatives will play a key role in their own regions. They mould the actions and operational culture of the wellbeing services counties.
That is why we should now focus the discussion on the essential questions: Do we wish to maintain the services the public sector is producing and doing well? Do we value the professionals of the public sector? How is the experience and expertise of these professionals utilised in practice to ensure that the services will remain as effective as possible even after all the changes?
Tehy supports its member candidates in many ways. We have created a Driving Force Model for decision-makers, proposing solutions to the crisis of social and health care services.
These issues can be solved when we have the will to do so. County and municipal representatives have plenty of authority and opportunities to influence how we will be cared for and treated.