Poisoning cases raise the need to discuss resources of health care in Finland

In health care recruitment it is practically impossible to find out comprehensively what kind of misdemeanours or serious crimes a potential member of the nursing staff may have previously committed.

The matter was brought to daylight in connection with the murder suspicions surrounding the deaths of two mentally handicapped patients in Ylöjärvi. A 26-year-old woman is suspected, among other things, of poisoning two people.

Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko (National Coalition Party) will set in motion an amendment next week, the aim of which will be to enforce the checking of backgrounds and possible criminal records of people who wish to work in the social and health sectors. The matter was reported by the Aamulehti daily in its Friday issue.

     

The present legislation only covers the checking of criminal backgrounds of nurses and teachers who wish to work with children.

The chances of a new employer finding out about such previous activities is extremely unlikely. There are no mechanisms to convey this kind of information from a district court to a potential employer, especially when the committed crimes were related to civilian life with nothing to do with the health care field.

      Furthermore, hundreds and hundreds of health care personnel, both locum, fixed period, and permanent staff members, are hired in Finland every week. The task of looking into everybody’s background would be immense.

      "The employer bears the responsibility and decides to what extent a background check is motivated and meaningful. The kind of background checks are definitely taking place, in which the potential employer calls previous employers or otherwise tries to ascertain details about the applicant's work history", says deputy director Tarja Holi of the National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs.

      "A possible criminal background is not looked into, and there are no possibilities of doing so, unless the applicant volunteers the information. Our legislation only covers the checking of criminal backgrounds of people who wish to work with children", explains Legal Affairs Ministerial Counsellor Pekka Järvinen from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

      "It is difficult to say whether it would make any difference. In my understanding, not very often.”

     

An altogether different matter would be how to evaluate the effect of various past crimes – tax fraud, speeding, or assault and battery to name but a few – on a person’s suitability to perform health care tasks.

The Finnish Association of Societies for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities says the lack of adequate professional staff at the Lehtimäki Opisto, where the incident took place, has been known for a long time.

 
Members of Parliament and the Ministry of Education have been lobbied by the Association over problems facing the centre. Relatives of students have also expressed their concern but no assistance has been forthcoming in providing improved resources.

 
The Association says the insulin poisoning case is the latest incident of the centre's serious shortage of resources. It called for greater legal protection for those with intellectual disabilities and added that even their lives were in danger until decision makers took the problem of resources seriously.