Overall the joint authority will reduce its staff by 778 person-years through lay-offs, pension arrangements and non-renewals of fixed-term contracts. Its administrative and support staff will bear the brunt of the reductions, with the headcount shrinking by over five per cent, or 337 person-years, through 170 lay-offs, for example.

The number of nurses will be reduced by 2.4 per cent and that of physicians by 0.6 per cent, although the authority pointed out that not all of the affected employees were involved in direct patient work.

HUS Group in August said the consultative negotiations are required to create cost savings of 50 million euros and reduce its headcount by roughly 990 person-years.

Matti Bergendahl, the CEO of HUS Group, on Thursday told YLE that the authority must now re-examine staff roles, collaborative structures and use of technology, as well as carefully oversee the realisation of patient safety once it begins carrying out the measures.

“We’ll do our best to combine the financial equation with access to treatment and quality of treatment,” he promised.

The Union of Social and Health Care Professionals in Finland (Tehy) on Thursday warned that the job cuts will inevitably have an impact on patient safety. With HUS Group responsible for all organ transplants, treatment of severe burns and certain other complicated operations in the country, the impacts could be felt nationwide.

“I suspect that decision-makers at HUS don’t understand what kind of decisions they’ve made. There’ll be no easy ways to fix the damage,” Millariikka Rytkönen, the chairperson at Tehy, stated to YLE.

“I can promise that we’ll contest the entire consultative process. This was carried out illegally.”

Aleksi Teivainen – HT