Oulu hospital project omitted adult psychiatric facilities

Oulu’s new university hospital is being built without facilities for adult psychiatric care, Yle reports. The hospital project has a total cost of about 1.6 billion euros, while psychiatric services currently operate mainly in century-old buildings in the separate Peltola area.

The North Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county, Pohde, now needs to find temporary premises quickly and begin planning permanent facilities for psychiatric care alongside the university hospital.

Mould has been found in one of the Peltola buildings, and an occupational health doctor has assessed staying there as a significant health risk. Other buildings in the area are also being examined.

The affected building, known as PS1, must be vacated as soon as possible. Pohde is considering moving its operations to two other buildings in Peltola. If those buildings are also found to be unsuitable, replacement premises will have to be found elsewhere.

Peltola and the university hospital are about one kilometre apart, separated by the busy Kajaanintie road. Pohde says the distance complicates urgent transfers of patients.

The new hospital includes facilities for child psychiatry, which has already operated mainly from the main hospital. No other psychiatric facilities were reserved in the project.

Erfan Jahangiri, deputy chief physician for psychiatric care at Pohde, called the situation embarrassing and questioned why psychiatry had been left outside the new hospital.

“We may be the only university hospitals where psychiatry is separate from the rest of healthcare,” Jahangiri wrote in an email, adding that he hoped the decision had not been influenced by the stigma associated with psychiatric care.

Tuomas Holma, Pohde’s chief development physician, said the decision was not related to stigma. He said the Peltola buildings had been extensively renovated over the years, and that the former hospital district and the current wellbeing services county had believed this would allow operations to continue there for longer.

Holma said indoor air symptoms had been reported in the buildings for years, but the seriousness of the situation became clear only this spring, when tests confirmed indoor air problems in PS1.

He acknowledged that Pohde was late in planning a move for psychiatric care to the new hospital. The cost of building psychiatric facilities is estimated at around 100 million euros.

There are currently 105 psychiatric beds for adults in Peltola.