As of the beginning of 2023, the responsibility for providing social welfare and health care services was transferred to 21 new wellbeing services counties. The survey commissioned by Tehy indicates that the workers of the wellbeing services counties have had a trying start due to cost-cutting pressures and the resulting uncertainty. Tehy member nurses are worried about both their own ability to manage and patient safety.
A whopping 71 per cent of the survey respondents feel that the efficiency of operations has declined in their organisation, 64 per cent report that managing at work and occupational wellbeing has declined, and nearly half (47 per cent) report that their work duties have become less enjoyable. The most significant stress factors at work are a lack of time, understaffing and too many administrative tasks.
– Social welfare and health care services have been underbudgeted for a long time. This has now been compounded with cost-cutting pressures. Making up for the budget deficit requires time and carefully considered procedures. Hasty decisions can lead to more expensive solutions. It is now important to guarantee industrial peace so that the development of the wellbeing services counties can continue and the issues in the operations can be resolved, comments Director of Public Relations and Development Kirsi Sillanpää from Tehy.
Few believe that they will be able to manage in their work
The situation in the sector has resulted in workers losing faith in their ability to manage. Only slightly over one fourth (28 per cent) of the survey respondents believe that they will be able to manage in their work until the end of their career. Particularly worrying are the answers of young respondents: only 12 per cent of respondents under the age of 30 believe that they will be able to manage in the sector for the entire duration of their working careers. However, after the trying years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a slight improvement can at last be seen in the respondents’ answers regarding occupational wellbeing.
– We must not in any way undermine workers’ trust further; for example, the changes to fixed-term contracts pursued by the Government need to be left unimplemented. The social welfare and health care sector must receive sufficient funding and the issues with working conditions must be resolved, as the system cannot afford to lose trained professionals. At the end of the day, this is a matter of providing citizens with services to which all of us are entitled, Sillanpää stresses.
The survey charted the impacts of the wellbeing services county reform on the service system as well. Respondents feel that the reform has had a negative impact on it, as a whopping 78 per cent feel that service availability has decreased and 66 per cent feel that service quality has declined.
Tehy had the survey conducted in the autumn of 2024 among Tehy members working in the wellbeing services counties. It was conducted by Aula Research Oy as an electronic survey with a sample of 19,999 people and a total of 5,157 Tehy members responding. The resulting response percentage was 26.
Presentation of survey results:
https://www.tehy.fi/sites/default/files/media/documents/Tiedotteen%20liite%20hyvinvointialueselvitys%20Tehy%202025.pdf
Enquiries:
Director of Public Relations and Development Kirsi Sillanpää, tel. 040 820 7848, [email protected]