Health Centre Annual Report 2009 is published.

The Health Centre’s task is to promote the health of Helsinki residents and to arrange, in cooperation with the hospital district, the necessary treatment of illnesses.

Health care services provided and arranged by the City of Helsinki were used by 73 per cent of Helsinki residents in 2009.

In 2009, the Health Centre provided a total of over 4 million outpatient care consultations, for example, at health stations, dental clinics and outpatient clinics as well as in home care and psychiatry. There were a total of around 870,000 bed ward days.

Health for Helsinki residents with new procedures

The Terve Helsinki (Healthy Helsinki) project (2009 – 2011) was launched to narrow health differences between Helsinki residents. The goal of the project is to prevent the social exclusion of young people and those of working age by developing new kinds of operating models to reach them, promote health and increase life management.

As a new procedure, virtual consultations by public health nurses were begun at the Habbo Hotel and IRC-Gallery, which are favoured by young people.

A new emergency duty hospital

After a break of three decades, a new hospital on emergency duty around the clock was completed in Helsinki. The Maria Hospital was able to move in the autumn to the new Haartman
Hospital, which was completed in the Meilahti Hospital District. In the new hospital, Helsinki
residents are served on the same premises by the health centre and hospital emergency
duty, bed wards supporting emergency duty, the internal medicine outpatient clinic
and oral health care emergency duty.

A busy fall

The swine influenza pandemic came ashore to Helsinki in October-November. Helsinki prepared for the coming pandemic by centralising the treatment of influenza patients starting in July to the influenza health station established in Laakso. The influenza proved to be milder than expected, and the peak phase of the pandemic lasted for a few weeks. The swine influenza vaccinations were able to be started at the health stations in October. All 26 Helsinki health stations, child health centres, school and student health care and the City’s occupational health centre participated in the swine influenza vaccinations. The vaccination arrangements worked well in Helsinki and long queues to vaccinations were not formed.

At the turn of the year, the Koskela, Kivelä and Myllypuro long-term hospitals were transferred from the Health Centre to the social agency’s elderly services. At the same time, the Suursuo Hospital was connected to the acute-care hospital.