Several studies show that public confidence in our healthcare system is wavering. According to the recent Healthy Finland Survey by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), only around half of Finns stated that they have confidence in healthcare services in 2024, compared to 76% in 2020.
The Kestävä terveydenhuolto (Sustainable healthcare) network was the first to explore how healthcare professionals would tackle the lack of public confidence. A total of 580 healthcare professionals (nurses, doctors and dentists) responded to a survey conducted by healthcare research company NHG between May and June 2025.
– The responses we received suggest that strengthening trust requires improvements in both the system and everyday activities. Healthcare professionals criticised the administration of wellbeing services counties and political decision-making, expressing a particular desire to see public primary healthcare strengthened instead of private services. On a personal level, respondents called for competitive salaries, meaningful work, flexible working hours and a lighter workload, says Research Director Riikka-Leena Leskelä from NHG.
Professionals want faster, more humane and more understandable healthcare
In open-ended questions, respondents were asked to suggest concrete solutions for improving citizens’ confidence in healthcare. The responses highlighted the need for faster appointment booking, access to treatment and continuity of care – in other words, the same issues that citizens were concerned about in the Healthy Finland Survey.
Many of the professional respondents considered a permanent care relationship to be the most important solution: they saw a model in which a personal doctor and a personal nurse work as a team as a way of ensuring the continuity and quality of care. Respondents across all backgrounds supported the personal doctor and nurse model, believing that it would enable more individualised and unhurried patient encounters.
Indeed, the Finnish Medical Association has proposed that by 2030, every Finnish citizen should be guaranteed a personal doctor who is easy to contact and available for an appointment within two weeks if necessary. In order to achieve this, implementation must begin immediately.
Seamless care pathways and prompt services
Although digital services offer many people effective channels for organising care, respondents emphasised the need to maintain the possibility of face-to-face contact, particularly for older people and those in need of special support. Diverse service models were seen as a solution that can take different needs into account.
Care pathways should be clear and well-described and proceed in a logical manner. They should be communicated sufficiently and be easily accessible to everyone.
Sufficient human resources are key to managing the workload of professionals and ensuring their well-being. ‘Human resources in public healthcare have not grown in proportion to the increase in service needs,’ says one of the respondents to the survey.
Although, according to the Healthy Finland Survey, two thirds of service users are satisfied with their most recent visit, professionals also saw room for improvement in patient encounters. The responses emphasised the desire to treat patients as individuals, not just cases, and there was also a desire for more time to spend with patients.
The respondents felt that the media plays a major role in shaping perceptions, and as in the Healthy Finland Survey, they suspected that the negative news coverage of healthcare cuts had undermined trust. Therefore, respondents hoped that good practices and successes in healthcare would be highlighted more than they are now.
– The observations of citizens and professionals regarding the challenges facing healthcare are consistent, and it is important that we talk about restoring trust – without it, the legitimacy of the entire healthcare and social welfare system could falter. The decline in trust must be taken seriously, and we must listen more closely to both citizens and healthcare professionals when considering the next steps in the reform of national and regional healthcare,’ says Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen, Chief Researcher at THL.
Training stands out among incentives
Healthcare professionals were also asked how different incentives would support the attractiveness of the sector, staff retention and regional availability of staff.
The majority of respondents work in the public sector. Interesting work was the most important reason for working in public healthcare, with 87% of respondents rating this as important. Support from the work community (81%) and opportunities for professional development (72%) also increased interest in working in the sector.
Conversely, the workload (72% of respondents) reduced the attractiveness of the sector. Management (60%) and opportunities to influence one’s own work (47%) were also factors that reduced interest in the sector.
– Unfortunately, general developments in the sector are working against these incentives. Among the factors perceived as important, the opportunity for professional development is facing a particularly strong headwind, with cuts being made to the training of healthcare and social welfare staff. The Government plans to abolish public sector training compensation, which has until now supported employers in training their staff. Furthermore, the Government has announced that it will reduce the compensation paid for specialisation training for healthcare and social welfare staff by a one-off amount of EUR 15 million in 2026. Cuts like these are like sawing off the branch we are sitting on. Without investment in professional development, we are weakening the already fragile employee attraction and retention in the sector. Attracting both nurses and resident doctors to areas further away from growth centres will become even more difficult than it is now, says Director of Public Relations and Development Kirsi Sillanpää from Tehy.
Trust comes from equality
Professor Heikki Hiilamo from the University of Helsinki proposes a universal healthcare system that serves all Finns equally, thereby strengthening confidence not only in healthcare but also in the welfare state and democracy as a whole.
By a universal healthcare system, Hiilamo means a system where tax revenue is used to fund the same level of services for everyone, without any categories of inequality. For example, people covered by occupational healthcare services currently have easier access to treatment, while others have to wait in line for treatment through the public service system.
– Public healthcare increases citizens’ trust and is also the most economically sustainable way of organising services in the long term. The system also needs incentives that reward disease prevention, not just treatment, Hiilamo sums up.
At the 10th anniversary seminar organised by the Kestävä terveydenhuolto network on 26 June 2025, discussions were held on what political and internal measures within the healthcare and social welfare sector could be taken to improve citizens’ trust in healthcare.
Enquiries:
Marketta Piskonen, External Affairs Manager, AbbVie Oy [email protected], tel. +358 40 902 2446
Interview requests:
Karoliina Heimo, Rud Pedersen
[email protected], tel. +358 40 509 0437
Information about the Kestävä terveydenhuolto network:
The aim of the Kestävä terveydenhuolto network is to challenge society and the operating environment of healthcare to consider how Finnish healthcare can be reformed in a customer-oriented and open-minded manner. The network also aims to offer new perspectives on how people’s well-being and ability to work and function can be secured now and in the future. The network was established in 2015 and includes AbbVie, the Finnish Dental Association, the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers, the Finnish Medical Association, SOSTE and Tehy. Hundreds of healthcare and political decision-making experts participate in the network’s events every year.