– This is about people and professionals, care staff, who will be hit very hard by these cuts. This will definitely have an impact on the care of people in the Uusimaa region, and even patient safety, says Millariikka Rytkönen, President of Tehy.
Hus’s drastic staff cuts may also have a national impact, as Hus is responsible for services such as organ transplantation, the treatment of severe burns, open-heart surgery on infants and the treatment of cleft lip and cleft palate patients nationwide.
The outcome of the cooperation negotiations seems predetermined, even though Hus assured its staff and the general public at the beginning that the reductions would be targeted at staff not working with patients.
– Hus remains silent about which health and care services citizens will be denied after the cuts. Not a single employee has been working there needlessly, and until now Hus has had a severe shortage of nurses, Rytkönen points out.
From the staff’s point of view, Hus’s actions throughout the cooperation negotiations have been shocking: hasty, disjointed and ill-prepared. The measures have been prepared as if in a panic.
Millariikka Rytkönen says that it is obvious that such drastic staff reductions will have an impact on the availability and quality of care. There is simply no way around it with such a huge reduction in the number of people working with patients.
Patient safety at Hus has already been under threat for a long time before these latest cuts.
At the same time, Hus announced that its management will be laid off for two weeks next year. Millariikka Rytkönen states that this is nothing more than a PR stunt.
– A two-week layoff for someone in Hus management’s income bracket is nothing compared to making care staff lose their jobs altogether, Rytkönen says.
Tehy continues to stand 100% behind its members affected by the cooperation negotiations and will contest this farce that Hus is calling a cooperation procedure.
Enquiries:
Tehy specialist, Master of Laws with court training Jarkko Pehkonen, tel. +358 40 531 5464, [email protected]