The practice of healthcare facilities using staff who are still under quarantine due to coronavirus exposure incidents has been reported at a second hospital in Tampere.
On Monday, Yle reported that some staff at Tampere University Hospital had been ordered back to work before their exposure-related quarantines were complete.
However on Tuesday, it was revealed that a similar practice was being carried out at Tampere's Rauhaniemi Hospital, which mainly serves elderly patients, a group at elevated risk of serious complications from coronavirus infections.
Finland's largest trade union for health and social care professionals, Tehy, announced that it had filed a complaint with the Parliamentary Ombudsman about the matter. The union said that the exposed healthcare workers had been ordered by the hospital into "practical quarantine."
13 cases as of Friday
According to THL guidelines, workers who are ordered into practical quarantine are not, for example, to go shopping or use public transport, but can be permitted to return to work.
Sirpa Räsänen, an epidemiologist and infectious disease physician at the City of Tampere, told Yle that Rauhaniemi Hospital had used staff still under practical quarantine orders on two wards at the facility.
Räsänen said such measures were being taken in cases when staffing shortages could potentially endanger patient safety.
She said the situation was regrettable but that the hospital aims to operate normally as staff members wait out the full duration of their quarantines.
By 3 December, a total of seven patients and staff members at Rauhaniemi Hospital had been diagnosed with coronavirus infections, but by the following day that number had risen to 13. Seven of the cases were patients and the remaining six were personnel.
An update on infections at the facility was expected later on Tuesday.