Finnish Health Care

Both public and private sector actors provide health care in Finland. Municipalities are responsible for organizing public health care, and they can arrange the services independently or form a federation of municipalities. Primary health care is carried out by the health clinics of the municipalities. Finland has around 200 municipal health clinics.

The purpose of specialized health care is to offer services that can not be practically arranged by primary health care. Admittance to specialized health care requires a referral either from a municipal primary health care, occupational health care or a private doctor. Every municipality has to be a part of some hospital district. The specialized health care of a municipality’s inhabitant primarily takes place in his or her own hospital district.

Finland has 20 hospital districts, and additionally, the province of Ahvenanmaa forms its own district. Five district central hospitals have the status of a university hospital: they have the know-how of rare, demanding specialities. Each university hospital has its own sphere of responsibility, a so called “million district”. Every hospital district has an assigned university hospital, whose services it primarily uses. Vaasa Hospital District belongs to the district of Tampere University Hospital.