Iltalehti runs through the recommendations given by the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health (STM) ahead of budget framework decisions on cuts to public spending, and finds a few differences between the expert opinion and the final result.
To recap: these recommendations were not made public before the budget framework talks, in a break from usual practice. The two ministries with the largest budgets, health and finance, for their proposals, refused to hand over the documents when asked by STT before the budget talks.
Now the original recommendations are out and they perhaps explain a little about why Health Minister Kaisa Juuso (Finns) said she had been 'surprised' by the final decisions.
Helsingin Sanomat has reported that the main plan was formulated by a group of four senior MPs, one from each party in the governing coalition, with minimal input from ministries. HS named those MPs as Otto Andersson (SPP), Matias Marttinen (NCP), Peter Östman (CD) and Ville Vähämäki (Finns).
The ministry had recommended that savings be made in specialist treatments, not in basic healthcare. The rationale is that savings in basic services often end up costing the taxpayer as problems go untreated for longer and patients end up in worse shape.
The ministry also recommended more hospital cutbacks than the government eventually decreed, and a restructuring of healthcare in Uusimaa to streamline bureaucracies.
The government decided to reduce the number of unpopular hospital closures from that proposal, and not to streamline the uusimaa administration — but did propose 132m in additional basic healthcare savings, against the ministry's advice.
Giant daycare centres
Helsingin Sanomat runs an analysis piece about the capital's preference for larger daycare centres built for hundreds of children.
That's a big shift from the tradition of smaller units of 100 children or less, which was the situation for two thirds of kids in daycare in 2023.
What's more, it runs counter to the city's strategy, which suggests that the city wants to provide daycare services close to people's homes, in order to reduce travel time.
It's also not in line with expert advice, which urges calmer environments with continuity of staffing from the same adults. One possible reason to prefer larger units is compliance with overall staffing ratios, which can be ensured by switching staff from group to group.
The larger a daycare centre is, the easier those switches can be.
HS notes that this shift to building larger and larger daycare centres has happened without a concrete democratic decision, and no politician has told voters they aim to build bigger daycare centres.
With municipal elections due next year, the paper says there's a chance it could yet become a political issue.
Pollen season starting
It might have been pretty cold in the last few weeks, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Temperatures are expected to increase next week, but as Ilta-Sanomat reports, that does bring its own problems.
Pent-up birch pollen production will start once we get warmer temperatures, bringing out the springtime allergies in all those who suffer from them.
Sufferers should be prepared, according to an expert interviewed by IS, and have their medications ready for when the first symptoms start to appear.
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