Sanna Svahn appointed wellbeing services county director for Western Uusimaa

Svahn is currently serving as the change director for the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County and the Head of Welfare and Health Sector in Espoo. She received strong support from the county council; she got 67 out of the 78 votes cast in the election and was elected directly in the first round. 

“I am grateful for the trust put in me. It is a great honour to be appointed the first director of the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. I have had the privilege to be involved in starting the construction of the wellbeing services county since August last year. Now the work continues. Our aim is to implement the transfer of services from municipalities to the wellbeing services county so that the services offered to residents continue as smoothly as possible in many places at the beginning of 2023. Services are mainly transferred from the current organisations as they stand,” Sanna Svahn says.

Svahn has also worked as the Head of Welfare and Health for the City of Espoo and, before that, as the Director of Healthcare Services in Espoo. Earlier, Svahn served Attendo Terveyspalvelut Oy as Director of Healthcare Services. She also has experience in preparing the health and social services reform as the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council Project Director for the Patients’ Freedom of Choice project in 2017–2018.

As of 1 January 2023, the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County will be in charge of a budget of approximately 1.7 billion euros towards providing 470,000 local residents with social welfare and health services, rescue services and curator and psychologist services for student welfare. The bilingual wellbeing services county employs 9,000 people.