“I believe that the draft law on patient safety should be submitted to the government,” the Minister of Family and Social Affairs Who is Linden (SDP) told YLE on Sunday.
The decision to do so is exceptional, as the governing parties have not yet found a consensus on whether the strike is so dangerous to patient safety that nurses should be required to work to ensure urgent and other necessary care.
“I can’t look at it from a different perspective,” he added, referring to his responsibilities as Minister of Family and Social Affairs. “If experts are unanimous in their view that patient safety has been compromised, in some respects seriously, I cannot take the view that it has not been compromised.”
The law guarantees adequate staffing for essential forms of care, such as intensive care, emergency care, obstetric care and dialysis, as well as other long-term care that is critical for patients. A statutory obligation to perform such tasks shall be invoked only if the authorities have identified the need and failed to secure sufficient staff through negotiations.
Lindén emphasized to the Broadcasting Corporation that the act did not interfere with the right to strike.
The legislative proposal is difficult, especially for the Left Alliance and the Social Democrats. Minister of Social Affairs and Health Hanna Sarkkinen (LA) informed its Coalition partners last week that the Left Party is not ready to continue the proposal.
Green has also expressed a desire to see first how local negotiations on mandatory tasks are progressing.
According to Lindén, access to these treatments varies across the country. – Local negotiations on the scope of sheltered work have led to different results in these six hospital districts. The overall assessment is still very clear that patient safety has been compromised.
The situation will get worse this week as a new strike begins on Friday, April 15, covering 40,000 nurses in hospital districts.
“On Friday, 85 percent of specialty hospital care is covered by strikes,” Lindén said.
He pointed out that the care strike differs from previous strikes in that non-strike responsibilities have not been decided in advance and the extent of protected work is discussed locally on a daily basis.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page