Response times in Finland's network of emergency response centres are falling, as the centres grapple with inadequate staffing.
Six emergency response centres are responsible for arranging rescue or police services in mainland Finland. They field over 2.6 million calls every year, on average.
The centres are spread throughout the country, with locations in the cities of Kerava, Kuopio, Oulu, Vaasa, Pori and Turku, and a common headquarters in the western coastal city of Pori. Those with most troubling staff shortages are the southernmost locations of Turku and Kerava.
Difficult but rewarding work
Artturi Jortikka has worked at the Kerava emergency response centre for over 10 years.
"The work is taxing and it does have this insidious way of sneaking in between your ears. Even so, it is still rewarding," says Jortikka, who works as a shift foreman.
The centres' administration says that 35 new workers in total are needed immediately to fill open vacancies in the six locations.
Recent statistics from the centres indicate that 1,250,000 phone calls were fielded between May and September of this year. About 50 of these callers had to wait over five minutes for a response.
"The last few years have been exceptional. The number of people being trained has not made up for the number of people leaving the field. Response centres in the capital city's Uusimaa region and other areas have not had an influx of new employees," says the Kerava centre's head, Vesa Seppä.
Money earmarked for more training
Most of Finland's emergency response workers are trained at the Emergency Services College in Kuopio, where 24 new students have traditionally been admitted to programme annually.
The Ministry of the Interior granted the college an additional 265,000 euros in funding this year in order to raise the incoming student number to 32, a number that is expected to rise to 40 next year.
"There should be even more education opportunities, with more local training choices in the Uusimaa region," says Seppä
He says that under the current system, many graduates of the college in Kuopio are not necessarily interested in moving to southern Finland, if they have no friends or family there. The considerably higher costs of living in the south would also mean that they would need to spend more of their salary on housing, for example.
The starting salary for an emergency response centre worker in Finland is around 3,000 euros monthly.
According to the centres' workers, the shortages began after 2011, when Finland's former network of 15 emergency response centres was cut to just six locations. The centres lost many workers who refused to relocate to a new city.