Carrying responsibility for a health care district of over million inhabitants

Finland was divided into nationwide health responsibility areas in 1976. The centres of the five responsibility areas were comprised of central hospitals that hosted medical faculties. The responsibility area of Tampere University Central Hospital included the central hospital district of Vaasa, the hospital district of Southern Ostrobothnia, the university central hospital district of Tampere, the central hospital district of Kanta-Häme, and the central hospital district of Päijät-Häme. The responsibility area was named ”a million-district”, because there were around million inhabitants living in this region. The aim was to centralize all the demanding specialized medical services of the responsibility area at the Tampere Central Hospital. Since demanding specialized medical services were less often needed, it was considered wasteful to provide them in every central hospital.