The government is planning an additional 75 million in cuts to education, Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz (NCP) said in an Iltalehti election debate.
The minister said more details and decisions on where the cuts will be applied will be made after the upcoming municipal and county elections.
During the debate, Left Alliance chair Minja Koskela pointed out that it is important to tell voters where the education cuts will be applied before the April elections.
In response, Adlercreutz said, "There’s no delay. The normal process would be to decide on this during the autumn budget discussions".
"My view is that basic education is under special protection. We will look at where cuts have been made previously. 120 million euros [in savings] has already been allocated to vocational education, and the cultural sector has been cut by more than 20 million euros from the total budget of EUR 530 million for the Ministry of Education and Culture," he said.
Adlercreutz told IS that the government parties are still negotiating on the cuts.
Quicker callback service
Healthcare centers need to return calls on the same day if an individual requests a callback during office hours, even if it's later in the day.
That's according to a directive from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in new guidelines issued to wellbeing regions on Tuesday regarding the application of care guarantee laws, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
While the rules for responding to patient contact have not changed, the STM's latest guidance clarified their implementation. The instructions largely align with previous guidance issued by the ministry in 2023.
The law says patients must be able to reach a health centre the same day and receive an assessment of their care needs, urgency, and access to necessary healthcare professionals or exams.
The ministry emphasises that this applies even if a patient contacts the health centre just before office hours end.
The ministry told STT that responses are also required when patients contact health centers via electronic messaging.
However, messages related to ongoing treatment do not require a response on the same day.
The Deputy Chancellor of Justice had previously ruled that calling a patient back only once is unacceptable. While the ministry recognised that multiple attempts might strain healthcare resources, it advised centres to notify patients that they could not reach them and that no further attempts would be made to do so.
On Tuesday, we reported that Finland's public healthcare system has failed to clear patient backlogs for non-urgent specialised medical care within the timeframe set by health watchdog Valvira.
A recent episode of Yle News' All Points North explored whether you need private health insurance in Finland. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Heavy pollen season
This spring is expected to bring the heaviest pollen season in ten years, reports Ilta-Sanomat.
The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) predicts that allergy sufferers may face a particularly difficult pollen season, with birch flowering expected to be more abundant than it has been in the last decade.
In southern Finland, birch trees usually begin flowering by early May.
It has been reported that the effects of climate change and global warming are leading to Finland's pollen season becoming longer.
Pollen levels across Finland can be tracked on the Norkko website, maintained by the University of Turku.
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