Tom
Kullberg
West Uusimaa
"Accessible care in the national languages, locally and safely. Personal doctor, self-employed, with freedom of choice for patients. Local health centers, elderly care, local hospitals and sufficient ambulance capacity - long journeys are stressful and risky when you are weak. Modified language requirements and incentives secure Swedish-speaking healthcare personnel. Healthcare and rescue training in both national languages."
I am in favour of a private doctor system, freedom of choice and a self-employment model for doctors. I think top-down, centralised organisations are bad. However, common regulations, pricing and a more comprehensive health insurance can free up creativity in healthcare where supply and demand meet via a combination of public and private sectors.
I am strongly in favour of local services in both national languages even in rural areas, as well as the widest possible range of emergency and specialist care at Raseborg and Lohja hospitals. Swedish service is in short supply in Espoo, Kirkkonummi and Lohja and the surrounding area. Recruitment, organisation and processes should ensure that the patient's language and the language skills of the healthcare staff meet. The role of the National Language Board in the welfare area needs to be strengthened. Local hospitals should be directly subordinate to the welfare area and it would be best in the long run if Espoo and the smaller municipalities were in separate areas.
I am an elected representative as a substitute in the city council and the Swedish Assembly of Finland, as well as a board member of the municipal rental apartment
company. I have served as vice-chairman of SFP in Hanko and was a member of the basic security committee until the welfare area took over. I am a father and M.Sc (Tech) with a long career in the Nokia Group behind me. Among other things, I have worked with organizational models and processes, also relevant in healthcare and the entire public administration.
Important political topics
Accessible health care
While in Germany, I got used to my own doctor callin about test results and a plan for continued treatment. Doctors there are usually self-employed, with their own or shared practice. Doctors set aside a certain amount of time for emergencies, the rest for scheduled appointments. Your own doctor can be a specialist, for example in internal medicine and ultrasound etc. examinations can be done directly at the first visit. Specialists can in many cases be booked directly, without a referral or unnecessary intermediate steps. All within the same general health insurance. In a best case scenario: safe, effective, reassuring and trustworthy - that's how healthcare should work.
Thriving children, adolescents and families
Maternal and child counseling are among the best we have. The service should be secured in the child's own language and could be extended to the first 10 years of life.
Accessibility in mental health care must be secured in both national languages, this has been neglected for too long.
School psychologists should be easily accessible to all students - as part of the school organization - not necessarily the welfare area as now.
Safe elderly care
An accessible combination of local services, day care, home care and technical solutions should ensure that everyone can live at home for as long as possible. Nursing home places should be available close to home, also close to loved ones and together with the own partner if appropriate. In both national languages, of course. Anything else can lead to insecurity and unnecessary tragedies.
Candidates answers in election machine
1 / 14
Ambulance services should receive more resources so that the number of ambulances in the region increases rather than decreases.
Very important when hospital servics are cut and distances of ambulance journeys increase
2 / 14
Services should be maintained in the regional hospitals in Raseborg and Lohja.
One of the most important issues. The local hospitals in Raseborg and Lohja are currently part of HUS, which has continued to reduce services. They should optimally be directly under the welfare area and preferably with Espoo and the smaller municipalities in separate areas.
3 / 14
The wellbeing services county of West Uusimaa should allocate more resources to language supplements to encourage staff to provide services in Swedish.
The level of service in both national languages must be guaranteed, especially in Espoo, Kirkkonummi and Lohja with surrounding. This may apply to other languages too, in areas where they are represented.
4 / 14
There should be more mobile services, such as health buses and remote consultations.
Mobile services and remote consultations are partly a substitute for personal meetings, but can also be effective solutions in sparsely populated areas or with limited available resources.
5 / 14
Wellbeing services counties must increase investments in preventive healthcare, even if it means that other types of care receive fewer resources.
Preventive healthcare should be a primary priority throughout life so that later care needs and costs could be expected to decrease
6 / 14
A personal doctor system should be introduced to improve continuity of care, even if it requires extra resources for a while.
I am strongly in favor of a dedicated family doctor system with freedom of choice and a self-employment model for doctors.
7 / 14
Wellbeing services counties should prohibit the use of temporary agency doctors.
Rental doctors are expensive and relying on them can lead to a vicious cycle. I believe independent practicing doctors would be the solution. They would act as personal doctors, among other things, according to clearly defined regulations tied to health insurance, and the welfare area would save on the costs of renting or employing doctors.
8 / 14
More shelter spaces should be established to help individuals subjected to violence.
There should be enough places for urgent threatening situations, also regionally.
9 / 14
To shorten waiting times, wellbeing services counties should increase the use of service vouchers.
Service vouchers are a good transitional solution. In the long run, a solution is needed that integrates public and private healthcare, including self-employed doctors. This way, existing healthcare resources could be made available within the same health insurance model.
10 / 14
Healthcare should be centralized if it saves money or improves quality.
I believe alleged savings or quality improvements in centralized organizations are often not realized in healthcare because of wrong premises. On the contrary, we need to move towards a decentralized model and local solutions in healthcare. Only certain specialist care is, in exceptional cases, so resource-intensive that centralized solutions are appropriate.
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Funding and resources for rescue services should be prioritized higher, even if it means cuts in other sectors.
Emergency services need to be available everywhere without delay, which is not always the case today.
12 / 14
Undocumented migrants should have the right to non-urgent healthcare.
Emergency care must be available to everyone, but our tax-funded public healthcare may be overly burdened by non-urgent care.
13 / 14
More emphasis should be placed on training healthcare staff in gender diversity and sexual diversity.
I believe everyone has the right to define their own sexual orientation and live freely as such. However, there is no need for extra healthcare investments in this respect.
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