Finland health care

FINLAND: FAMILY DOCTOR SYSTEM IS DYING OUT……

The reason for the lack of family doctors, is socialized medicine. Full stop.

But they’re not going to admit that, no, not in any way, shape or form, because to do so is seen as attacking Finnish identity itself. Finns, like in all other countries that practice socialized medicine have internalized it as some kind of sign of societal progress that other developing (and already developed) nations should be willing embrace. You know, ”be like us”, we’ll show you how!

But it all comes at an amazing destructive cost, in pay for medical staff (they receive far below that of the US) which means lack of financial incentives for people to study medicine which translates to lack of doctors (who either do not exist or have headed elsewhere to obtain better pay for their services. All of this coincides with the long wait for patients needing operations, procedures etc.

NOTE: No system is perfect, it’s just that some or more imperfect than others when government gets involved.

Keskisuomalainen: Family doctor system dying out

Initially developed in the late 1980s, the scheme whereby patients have their own personal doctor is disappearing. Though it still exists in some small municipalities in Finland, it has largely been the victim of rapid urbanisation and a shortage of doctors.

Lääkäri stetoskoopin kanssa.
Image: Yle

According to the Finnish Medical Association, the family doctor scheme is only used by one-sixth of public health care centre doctors these days.

Developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the programme was based on the idea that one doctor had a defined area and group of patients as his or her responsibility.

The advantage was that the doctor and patient knew each other, which is thought to have increased the quality of care and its efficiency. The programme’s so-called golden age was during the early 2000s when it was in practice throughout much of the country.

Only a few small municipalities in Finland retain the scheme today, as during the last ten years many larger cities have gradually moved out of the practice because of the challenge of adapting it to large populations and a shortage of doctors.

Sources
Yle, Keskisuomalainen

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