Eloisa’s cost-cutting measures targeting Vaalijala don’t affect only South Savo – they threaten to dismantle a national center of expertise built over decades and shift overall costs, many times larger than the individual regional savings, onto the entire social and healthcare system.
Eloisa’s adjustment measures now strike at the heart of Vaalijala. Closing four rehabilitation units, eliminating 25 inpatient beds, and leaving dozens of employees facing uncertainty are not merely internal reorganizations within one region. They are decisions that undermine national-level special expertise built over generations. At the same time, these services already have long waiting lists – yet operations are being scaled down.
Placing Vaalijala under the responsibility of the South Savo wellbeing services county during the reform may have been a fatal mistake, one whose scale is only now becoming clear. Vaalijala’s services were designed from the outset to serve the entire country – not the budget of a single wellbeing services county. As counties cut back on purchased services to ease financial pressures, they focus only on their own budget lines, not the national picture.
Put simply: counties may save in the short term on their outsourced service budgets, but at the same time are forced to invest more resources into building replacement services – sometimes even establishing entirely new units and trying to recruit skilled professionals who are not readily available.
Vaalijala’s concentration of knowledge has been built over decades, and once it is broken up, it cannot simply be rebuilt.
When clients are moved away from Vaalijala, the expertise disperses too. The end result is that total social and healthcare costs at the national level may rise, even if individual counties achieve savings on purchased services. Meanwhile, Vaalijala’s concentration of expertise is dismantled, and Pieksämäki loses vital jobs. Who ultimately wins?
For Pieksämäki, Vaalijala is far more than an organization. It is a major employer and part of the city’s identity. If its role is eroded piece by piece, the impact is as severe as shuttering a major industrial plant in a small town. This is not just another administrative decision – it is one that affects everyday life, migration patterns, and the region’s future.
The greatest concern, however, is for Vaalijala’s clients. There are no “light cases” at Vaalijala – only people whose care requires specialized expertise that cannot be rapidly built elsewhere. Moving them to new units – often in haste and without the chance to build trust – can lead to situations whose human and financial costs far exceed any budget savings. On paper, outpatient services and new arrangements may look efficient, but in practice they risk forming a fragmented network that demands more resources than what is currently spent.
The wellbeing services reform was supposed to eliminate overlaps and clarify structures. Instead, we are now dismantling exactly what worked: strong expertise, deep local roots, and long-term care. Vaalijala’s concentration of knowledge has been built over decades, and once it is broken up, it cannot simply be rebuilt.
This is no longer a question of one region’s budget. It is a question of whether we want to maintain the national-level specialized expertise on which the care of Finland’s most demanding clients depends. If we allow this to crumble, everyone loses – clients, regions, employees, and ultimately the entire system and public finances.
Background: Vaalijala has long been a nationally significant provider of specialized services – a center of expertise for individuals with intensive support needs. Located in Pieksämäki, Vaalijala traces its roots back to 1907, when it began as the Sortavala institution for the “feebleminded,” later growing over the decades into one of Finland’s key hubs of specialized competence.