Clients can contact Helsinki health stations electronically, by phone, or by visiting in person. The telephone service operates with a call-back system, and in December 2024, we responded to calls within an average of four and a half hours. Some health stations returned calls in less than an hour, while at others, call-back times were longer than average.
For instance, on Monday 3 February, we returned calls the same day to all clients except those from one health station. Our goal is to return all calls on the same day.
Clients can usechat services, Omaolo, or the Maisa client portal for electronic services. Chat and Omaolo are best suited for urgent matters, as they provide quick responses. Maisa is intended for non-urgent messages, which we aim to process within two working days. Last year, we handled two-thirds of Maisa messages within this target time.
At Helsinki health stations, clients can receive urgent care on the same day. For non-urgent matters, our target is to offer nurse appointments within 14 days and doctor’s appointments within 30 days. In December, 10 health stations met the target for non-urgent nurse appointments, while six achieved the target for non-urgent doctor’s appointments.
“There are currently differences between health stations in call-back times and access to non-urgent care. We have taken measures to address this. At the end of last year, we implemented a new call-back system to improve call management. We are also recruiting additional staff for health stations with the longest waiting times,” says Leena Turpeinen, Director of Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Expanding the personal care team model and designating personal doctors for clients with extensive needs
When a client contacts a health station, we assess their situation and direct them to the appropriate professional.
Some of our health stations already operate under the personal care team model, and by 2025, all will adopt it. A multidisciplinary personal care team includes a doctor, nurse, and other professionals, such as a social worker and physiotherapist. Each client is assigned a designated professional, who may be a nurse, to coordinate their care and guide them to other services as needed. With our new call-back system, calls are routed directly to the client’s personal team, ensuring faster service and continuity of care.
Clients with extensive service needs will also be assigned a personal doctor. Helsinki has long offered personal doctors, and currently, one in three residents has one.
High client satisfaction
Most clients visiting health stations in Helsinki are satisfied with the services they receive. In December, the average recommendation index for health stations was 63 (on a scale of -100 to +100, with a score of 50 considered excellent).
Our top-performing health stations achieve outstanding ratings, with recommendation indices exceeding 75. In December, these included Paloheinä, Jakomäki, Lauttasaari, Suutarila, Kivelä, and Maunula.
Correction of access to care statistics in early 2025
The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) publishes access to care statistics for all wellbeing services counties. Due to a change in patient information systems, Helsinki’s statistics have contained significant inaccuracies since 2021, making access to care appear worse than it actually is. In cooperation with THL, retrospective corrections have now been made to Helsinki’s data. The corrected figures will be published in early 2025.
THL’s statistics (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service)
“It now appears that the long-standing data error has been resolved, and information will be correctly transmitted from Helsinki to THL. This correction will significantly improve Helsinki’s reported figures,” says Leena Turpeinen.
Health station statistics
Helsinki has 23 health stations, of which 21 are run by the City of Helsinki, while two operate under a private service provider pilot scheme.
- In 2024, Helsinki’s health stations handled nearly two million client interactions:
- 540,000 doctor and nurse appointments
- 880,000 client phone calls
- 360,000 Maisa messages to clients
- 85,000 Omaolo symptom assessments
- 8,000 chat conversations
