Central Finland wants care home rooms cleared within a day

Central Finland’s wellbeing services county recommends that a care home resident’s room be cleared on the day they die or, at the latest, the following day. Yle reports that a relative who lives far away says the timetable is unreasonable.

Liisa Westerstråhle, who handles her brother’s affairs from Turku, about 300 kilometres from his care home in Jyväskylä, received the county’s guidance in a letter this summer. She said it shocked her and noted that the letter did not explain the reason for the policy.

“Many relatives may live far away. It would be impossible for me to set off on that timetable,” Westerstråhle said. She also questioned whether the guidance was lawful, comparing the room’s rental arrangement to a normal tenancy.

Anne Viita, director of the renters’ advocacy organisation Vuokralaiset, said that if a room is covered by a rental agreement like a home, the estate of a deceased tenant has a one-month notice period. A landlord cannot shorten the period set by law, she said, though a tenant can agree to a shorter period with the landlord. The initiative must come from the tenant or the estate, and rent must also stop before the legal notice period ends, Viita said.

The Central Finland county says the clearance timetable is a recommendation, included in a separate checklist provided with the rental agreement. It stops charging rent on the day the room is cleared.

Guidance differs across Finland’s wellbeing services counties. In Pirkanmaa, the recommendation is to clear and hand over a room in round-the-clock care within three days of a resident’s death. South Savo and Southwest Finland have no fixed deadline. Southwest Finland’s county says the arrangements are agreed with relatives and the room should be cleared by the end of the rental agreement.

Niina Kaukonen, director of services for older people in South Savo, said a resident’s death is a sensitive situation and requires tact. The county hopes rooms can be made available to new residents as soon as possible, but always discusses clearance with relatives, she said.

Central Finland tightened its guidance this summer. Service director Maarit Raappana said a recommendation to clear rooms quickly was already in place, but that doing so had sometimes taken several days or even a week. She said the county has many older people waiting for a place in care services.

The wait for round-the-clock care for older people in Central Finland is 86 days, among the longest in the country, alongside North Karelia. Waiting times are 55 days in Pirkanmaa and 46 days in South Savo.