Pilot project on the use of designated personal doctors to be launched at Iso Omena Health Station – no actions required from clients

Unlike the entrepreneurship-based model with self-employed healthcare professionals currently in place at Kalajärvi Health Station, the doctors involved in the pilot at Iso Omena Health Station will enter into a public-service employment relationship with the wellbeing services county. From the client’s perspective, the models are identical. Clients will be assigned to a personal doctor and nurse, responsible for the treatment and care of their clients in the future.

The pilot project on the use of designated personal doctors involves four doctors and six nurses at Iso Omena Health Station. The residents participating in the pilot correspond to around 10 percent of all clients at the health station. At this stage, you cannot sign up for the pilot yourself, nor do clients need to contact the health station on the matter.

The residents invited to participate in the pilot are confirmed once the pilot has started, and therefore, we are not yet able to tell who the participants are. The residents will be informed about their possible personal doctor at their next visit to the health station. Should it later become possible to apply to participate in the pilot, we will announce this on our website.

Clients who are not part of the test group will continue to receive treatment and care as before.

Kalajärvi Health Station has been the first health station in the wellbeing services county to offer work to a self-employed doctor as of December 2024 (article in Finnish). In this model, the self-employed doctor has independently provided treatment and care to a designated group of residents in the area. 

“The entrepreneurship-based model with self-employed professionals at Kalajärvi Health Station and the pilot at Iso Omena Health Station provide valuable information on how different models based on designated personal doctors work in our wellbeing services county. Our ultimate goal, of course, is to explore how this model could be expanded across the entire wellbeing services county in the future,” says Chief Physician Emil Heinäaho.

We will provide updates on the models at Kalajärvi and Iso Omena Health Stations on our website and social media channels during the spring.

The pilot project on the model with designated personal doctors is part of the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland, funded by the EU’s recovery instrument (Next Generation EU) through the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.