Finland is divided into 20 hospital districts, each providing specialist
consultation and care for its population. Local municipal authorities are
responsible for funding specialist treatment provided to inhabitants of their
areas. Each hospital district has a central hospital with departments for most
main specialties. Finland has five university hospitals. These provide the most
advanced medical care, including highly specialized surgery and treatment for
rare diseases. The university hospitals are also mainly responsible for the
clinical training of medical students, and for medical research. In comparison
with the situation in other countries, the number of hospital beds in Finland is
fairly high. There has been a trend towards reducing the number of hospital beds
by grading of care, introducing short-term postoperative treatment, and
transferring patients, for example those receiving psychiatric treatment, to
receive outpatient care.
The number of emergency units has also been reduced, in
an effort to save costs and reduce the workloads of doctors.Specialist care
Förbund
The Finnish Medical Association -
Health Care and the Medical Profession in Finland
Association
