Private clinic sues paediatrician for 20,000 euros

Pirkanmaan Lähineuvola Oy, a private maternity and child health clinic, is seeking 20,000 euros in damages from paediatrician and university researcher Lotta Immeli, Yle reports. The company claims that her social media posts harmed its business between 2024 and 2026.

The dispute is pending before the Helsinki District Court. Immeli and colleagues run the Lääkäriliiga social media channels on Instagram and TikTok, where they share research-based health information for families with babies and seek to correct health-related misinformation.

According to the company’s claim, it was identifiable from the posts and Immeli intentionally sought to damage its business. The claim says her posts suggested that children were being subjected to unnecessary examinations or procedures for financial gain.

Pirkanmaan Lähineuvola sells breastfeeding counselling, massage, aftercare for babies’ tongue-tie and lip-tie operations, and childbirth classes. Immeli has criticised unnecessary tongue-tie and lip-tie operations for babies in an earlier Yle article.

The company says the social media posts led to customer relationships ending and new customers not signing up. A legal representative for Pirkanmaan Lähineuvola told Yle that the company would not comment on the case.

Immeli says there is too much overtreatment

Immeli is concerned that damages claims of this kind could discourage researchers and doctors from taking part in public debate. She says it is important that practices related to the care of babies can be critically assessed.

Immeli says she has never mentioned Pirkanmaan Lähineuvola by name in her posts. She says she has discussed health claims related to the care of babies and used example material from the clinic in one post, but did not identify the clinic by name or in any other way.

In recent years, Immeli has studied the medicalisation and paramedicalisation of ordinary aspects of babies’ growth and development. She describes these as processes in which normal phenomena are treated as medical problems or addressed through methods such as alternative treatments.

“There is a lot of overtreatment, medicalisation and paramedicalisation without sufficient research evidence,” Immeli said. “At the same time, there is a gap in public healthcare in how we can support families. A commercial market has emerged in the private sector that benefits from families’ concerns.”

Not the first legal threat

The claim by Pirkanmaan Lähineuvola is not the first time a company has taken action against Immeli. She says another private clinic has also demanded that she remove a video from a social media post and warned of possible legal proceedings.

Yle has seen correspondence between Immeli and the company. In the post, Immeli commented on health claims related to treatment marketed by the company for children and showed part of one of its videos. Immeli says she did not mention that clinic by name either.

Breastfeeding organisations have also publicly criticised Lääkäriliiga’s communications. In a statement published last year, the organisations said the channel’s communications weakened families’ trust in the healthcare system.