Kela
In Finland we are lucky to get some financial support from Kela in many situations during our lives. I have needed Kela’s services many times. When I was unemployed a couple of months, I got general housing allowance. It helped me with living costs, because I didn’t have so much money. When I studied in polytechnic, I got study grant and student loan. The student loan was a very cheap loan, if I could say, and it helped me a lot. After a couple of years of working, I was happy to stay on the maternity leave and got a maternity package from Kela. There were different kinds of clothes and supply for the baby and for the whole family and it was so lovely to have it! Now we get child benefit from Kela every month until our daughter is 17 years old. Nowadays I get some reimbursement from medicine and i.e. dental care or private doctor but that’s all. I have an European Kela card in case of getting ill while travelling in Europe. Luckily I haven’t needed to use it once.
OmaKanta
I use OmaKanta (MyKanta) regularly if I need to check some prescriptions or health information for example after visiting a doctor. I use my mobile phone or computer to access there and I identify with my online banking codes. It’s very useful if you need to check your personal health data from there or for example renew your prescriptions. Also it can save some resources of health care, if patients can check the plan that doctor has made from OmaKanta without contacting the health center at all.
Keva
If you want to know, when you can retire or how much you can get pension, you can visit Keva’s page. You can use the service 24/7 and be able to see, how much you can get pension, if you have worked in the public sector. I used my online banking codes again to identify. For some reason I wasn’t able to get any information from the web page; maybe because I have worked only in the private sector?
Digital shops
I don’t do a lot of online-shopping, but when I do, I usually use Zalando which I prefer reliable. There are sometimes very good offers there – even better than shopping in the actual store. The shipping is usually very fast and the clothes arrive in couple of days from there. When I shop online, I usually use my credit card in case of some problems. I think it’s safer than with online banking codes.
Pihlajalinna Terveyssovellus
I use Pihlajalinna Terveyssovellus if I need some occupational health services. It is a very good application and it’s very useful, if you need to see nurse, doctor or make some appointments. You can chat online in realtime with the doctor or nurse and by doing that you don’t need to go to the medical center at all. It is easy to find any kind of information dealing with your health data from the application. I prefer using the application instead of calling because I find it easier for me. It saves some time because you don’t have to go to the medical center. It also is very easy to have a prescription for example for the eye infection or a referral to the laboratory. After using the application you don’t want to go back to the old anymore :).
Digitalization and digital gap
These days digitalization develops fast and some groups of people may be left outside from the digital health services. It is important to treat people equally so that every one has the same chance to get health care when needed. It is also important to rationalize the health care resources and digitalization is one way to do that. It’s a fact that we should focus digital services to those who can use them, so that those who can’t are able to use health services in other ways. Not everyone has the possibility to use for example online banking codes which are needed to use many digital services. Also if the family members would like to run some errands for the elderly it always isn’t possible. I think that the immigrants are also one group who always don’t have a chance to use digital services. The gap should be made smaller so that every one could have the same possibility to use digital services – if only they want.
Digital compentence test
I did the digital competence test and the results are like I expected. The production part was weakest for me as configuration and automation are not my strongest know-how ;). I got highest points from Communication and Safety, even though safety issues could sometimes be even more recognized. The test was very interesting to do!
Self evaluation
This part and almost all the web pages were familiar to me. The Digital competence test was something I had never got to know before and it was very interesting. We have many good and advanced digital services here in Finland and they are developing a lot all the time. I think we are very lucky to live in Finland and get social security from Kela and Keva. Not in many countries they have same kind of social security system as we have in Finland.
I have left three comments here:
Hi Hanna,
It was nice to read your blog. I agree with you that some groups of people may be left out of digital healthcare services, even though everyone should have equal opportunities. I also agree that people should be offered alternative service opportunities, according to people’s abilities and resources. However, not everyone will ever be able to take advantage of the possibilities of digitization. I agree with you that digitalization can rationalize healthcare resources and new ideas are born all the time.