Hospital districts call for national programme for fungus damage repairs

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Hospital districts call for national programme for fungus damage

repairs

Helsingin Sanomat - Helsinki,Uusimaa,Finland*

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Hospital+districts+call+for+national

+programme+for+fungus+damage+repairs++/1135233974688

Airborne fungus from damp building structures is a serious problem

at hospitals across the country. The Finnish hospital districts are

calling for an urgent national state-subsidised programme to repair

damage to hospitals caused by mildew growth in the structures of the

buildings.

A number of hospitals in need of extensive repairs are located in

various parts of the country, for example in Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä,

and in Helsinki.

Professor Kari Reijula from the Finnish Institute of

Occupational Health (FIOH) is wondering why the Ministry of Social

Affairs and Health has not taken any managerial action in the

matter.

Reijula himself is in charge of the national development

project for Finnish health care property (VALSAI). The objective of

VALSAI is to develop the management and lifetime management of

hospital properties, in addition to methods and processes of

building and renovation. The project is part of the FinnWell

programme of the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and

Innovation (Tekes).

The key question is how the operational long-term planning and

spatial requirements of a hospital district will be combined in the

future.

State Secretary Terttu Savolainen from the Ministry of Social

Affairs and Health would be careful with subsidies.

" Instead of waiting for subsidies, the hospitals should take action

immediately. According to the law, all factors threatening the

safety of an employee have to be eliminated " , notes Savolainen,

saying that the VALSAI project should look into the current

situation in the Finnish hospitals.

At the same time as the decision-makers are debating who

should be responsible for the situation, the personnel and long-term

patients at hospitals have to remain in the same damaged premises

from one day to the next.

While airborne fungi do not cause symptoms to all patients and

nurses, some of them could get a chronic illness in response to

fungi.

For example in the Oulu University Hospital, some individual

patients have been transferred away from the mildew smell.

In a number of hospitals, renovations relating to damage

caused by fungus growth have been made for years and are still being

made. However, new incidents are detected all the time.

Currently, around 15 per cent of the total floor area of all

Finnish hospitals would require urgent repairs. The estimated budget

would be EUR 400 million.