This spells staff layoffs, shifts to part-time work, failures to fulfil tasks and pay cuts.
– The HUS plans reflect Minister of Finance Riikka Purra’s (FP) mentality of using scissors and cutting boards. It looks like political decision-makers are forcing HUS to cut its best units from the organisational chart and snip at its resources: award-winning hospitals and entire teams, Millariikka Rytkönen says.
HUS’s plans might be the most comprehensive public health care rundown project in Finnish history. If realised, the havoc wreaked by HUS’s plans with both employees and the residents of Helsinki and Uusimaa is immeasurable.
Millariikka Rytkönen also lambasts the decision-makers for only reserving two months for discussions on these devastating cutbacks.
– I do not know what will be left. The political decision-makers in charge of funding must immediately take action to remedy the situation and save HUS. The employees cannot take this as they are at the very end of their rope, Rytkönen says.
Tehy demands answers
Trade union Tehy demands that Minister Riikka Purra, who is in charge of central government finances, and other decision-makers in charge of HUS funding explain how they intend to arrange for the care of the residents of Helsinki and Uusimaa going forward, if HUS goes through with these new plans.
Rytkönen says that Tehy is doing its utmost to support the HUS employees working in this stressful situation by employing its best resources and the services of its advocacy workers. The members have the full support of Tehy. Tehy will strengthen the support for HUS shop stewards and negotiators during the change negotiations in order to reduce cutbacks aimed at personnel.
President Rytkönen is perplexed as to where the residents of Helsinki and Uusimaa are going to receive care, when HUS has been cut up and staff has been let go or they have resigned. There are real concerns regarding residents not being able to access care in life-threatening situations.
– After the personnel is gone, is the government intending on sending all heart and organ transplant patients to Denmark, like the patients of the New Children’s Hospital, she asks.
– Even though the ability to cope with pressure is a default setting with healthcare professionals, this is going too far, Rytkönen says.
Further information: Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen, requests for interview through Special Advisor Mila Huovinen, [email protected], tel. +358 0400 540 005.