The emergency medical services are produced as a welfare mix model. Services are provided partly by the hospital district itself, partly in collaboration with Southwest Finland Emergency Services and Pirkanmaa Hospital district and partly by external service providers.
In VSSHP, the emergency medical services are headed by the Chief Physician of the Emergency Medical Unit. The daily 24 h medical operations are led by the duty prehospital care physician of the Tyks catchment area for highly specialised medical care together with the field commanders of the emergency medical service.
The duty prehospital care physician is stationed in the FinnHEMS20 unit. The unit serves entire Southwest Finland and its base is at Turku Airport. The unit operates an ambulance and a helicopter ambulance, and they reach emergencies within 30 minutes from dispatch including some areas in Satakunta and Uusimaa regions.
The field commander operating from the situation room at Tyks T Hospital is in charge of the field operations of the entire hospital district in collaboration with prehospital care field commanders of Salo, Loimaa and Uusikaupunki. The field commander in the T Hospital situation room coordinates the resources for urgent prehospital emergency calls and non-urgent patient transportation duties together with the transport coordinator.
The field command unit in Turku has a vehicle in its use that is mainly not used for patient transport. The field commander’s vehicles in Salo, Loimaa and Uusikaupunki are normal ambulances who operate like any other prehospital emergency care unit and in which one of the paramedics serves as the field commander. The units are stationed at T Hospital and emergency clinics in the area.
The hospital district answers to approx. 66,000 medical emergencies each year. The hospital district operates 34 prehospital emergency care units, 28 of which are on call 24 hours a day. In addition to this, the ambulances reserved for patient transfers between health care facilities participate in prehospital emergency care if the situation allows.
There is a wealth of first response capacity within the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. First-response services are provided by several voluntary fire brigades, Turku and Southwest Finland chapters of the Finnish Red Cross, and the industrial fire-fighting units at Fortum Naantali Refinery and Meyer Turku Shipyard.
The hospital district also has a cooperation agreement with the Finnish Border Guard on the use of sea rescue helicopters in medical emergencies. The maritime rescue services provided by the Finnish Border Guard play a key role in the organisation of prehospital emergency care in the archipelago. The emergency medical services also collaborate with the police, rescue department, and social welfare and health departments on a daily basis.
Mailing address: P.O BOX 52, 20521 Turku
Sirpa Rantanen, Managing Director sirpa.rantanen@tyks.fi02 313 8920
Timo Iirola, Senior Chief Physician
timo.iirola@tyks.fi
02 313 8921
Anne Hedman, Senior Nursing Officeranne.hedman@tyks.fi02 314 4410
Tomi Nieminen, Prehospital Emergency Care Field Commandertomi.nieminen@tyks.fi02 313 7304