Changes to Open Child and Maternity Health Clinic Services in Espoo, Lohja, Vihti, and Karkkila

There are many reasons behind discontinuing open child and maternity health clinics. We are standardizing our service offerings, because each resident in the Wellbeing Services County should have equal access to our services, regardless of their municipality of residence. Open child and maternity health clinics have not been available in nearly every Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County municipality.

“The open child and maternity health clinics have brought along many positive aspects, but they have also presented challenges. Allocating resources to different service units has proven difficult because we cannot predict in advance how many clients will arrive at any given time. As a result, some clinics have experienced unreasonably long waiting times for clients, while other clinics have wasted resources due to lack of visitors,” explains Pia Sinkkonen, the service supervisor of child and maternity health clinic services.

Pre-scheduled check-up appointments are designed to cover the services previously offered during open clinic visits, such as monitoring children’s growth metrics and administering vaccinations.

However, please note that influenza vaccinations are an exception. For influenza vaccination, schedule a dedicated vaccination appointment or request it during one of your child’s periodic health checks.

Pregnant individuals are welcome to book check-up appointments for prenatal care, including blood pressure and haemoglobin level assessments, as well as foetal heart sound monitoring.

In Espoo, you can book a check-up appointment in person at the clinic, via the clinic’s chat service, or by contacting the centralized appointment booking and counselling service at 029 151 2400, available Monday through Friday from 8.30 to 13.30.  In Lohja, Vihti, and Karkkila, you can book a check-up appointment in person at the clinic or by phone.

Espoo’s online open child and maternity health clinic is set to broaden its scope in the spring of 2024 by offering short, 30-minute video appointments with every nurse as a new feature. Concurrently, the service will be renamed as the Remote Child and Maternity Health Clinic.

Appointments for the remote clinic can be scheduled in various ways: during an in-person clinic visit, via the clinic’s chat service, through our centralized appointment booking and counselling number, or by using our online appointment booking system. You can also conveniently access the remote clinic services between health clinic visits. For more detailed information on these services, please visit our website.