Opinion|Reader’s opinion
Particularly for working-age people, the use of private service providers in a huge vaccination contract is justified.
How to vaccinate the population effectively and safely in the face of an imminent communicable disease? The bottleneck is still the availability of the coronavirus vaccine itself, but this barrier is likely to be removed reasonably soon. At that point, the vaccination process and the roles of the different actors need to be smooth and well thought out.
Private service providers, especially occupational health care, are responsible for a large part of Finnish vaccination activities, such as annual seasonal influenza vaccinations. The expertise in the successful implementation of mass vaccinations is extensive. The use of private service providers in a huge vaccination contract, especially for working-age people, is also justified because in that case the municipality’s own staff are not caught up in vaccination and are able to carry out their normal work, such as school health care.
Municipalities are responsible for organizing covid-19 vaccinations and can use private services either as purchasing services (for example, by acquiring staff and facilities) or through occupational health care. If the municipality procures vaccination from a private individual, it must, of course, agree on a reasonable compensation for the work and supplies used for vaccination with the service provider. The vaccine itself is paid for by the state, which has already paid the municipalities significant additional state contributions to the cost of the epidemic.
Public authorities have the opportunity and, for the most part, also the legal basis to co-operate with the private sector. This is ultimately a state of mind.
During the coronavirus crisis, the public authorities have not fully recognized the role of private providers of social and health services in service production and have not responded to the call for cooperation. This has been reflected in the organization of coronavirus testing and the procurement and replacement of protective materials.
We hope that the time is now ripe for fruitful cooperation for the benefit of all Finns. Problem areas and their solutions should be identified together with private sector actors. Occupational health care should be systematically harnessed to vaccinate people of working age and give municipalities and hospital districts clear instructions on how to coordinate the whole.
The health services industry is ready to build the best possible model for vaccinating Finns together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and other necessary actors.
Hanna-Maija Kause
Director, Health Services, Welfare Industry Hali ry
Reader opinions are speeches written by HS readers, selected and delivered by HS editorial. You can leave a comment or learn about the principles of writing at https://ift.tt/2LkDQdr.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/reader-s-opinion-private-service-providers-are-ready-to-help-with-vaccinations/
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