This classification is no longer valid.
Hospital Districts 2022
Validity start date:
Hospital Districts 2022
Hospital districts abolished on 31 December 2022.
The country is divided into hospital districts for the organisation of specialised health care. To organise specialised health care, each municipality must belong to some joint municipal authority for specialised health care.
On 1 January 1991, the central hospital and health care districts changed into hospital districts. The area of a hospital district is formed from the municipalities belonging to the joint municipal authority for specialised health care.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is responsible for general planning, steering and monitoring of specialised health care, in regions the Regional State Administrative Agencies. The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is the expert agency for specialised health care.
The joint municipal authority for specialised health care must attend to the reconciliation of specialised health care in its area and in collaboration with health centres, plan and develop specialised health care so that public health work and specialised health care form a functional whole.
The joint municipal authority for specialised health care provides the health centres in its area with the specialised health care services they need, which cannot be provided appropriately by health centres and is in charge of the supervision and quality control of laboratory and x-ray services, medical rehabilitation and other corresponding special services.
The joint municipal authority for specialised health care is also responsible for research, development and training in its area of responsibility. In addition to hospital districts, the country is divided into special areas of responsibility for the organisation of specialised level of health care.
The Government determines the special areas of responsibility so that each area has a hospital district in which area there is a university providing medical training.
No changes as of 1 January 2022
Changes as of 1 January 2021
As a consequence of the municipal merger (Honkajoki and Kankaanpää) the number of member municipalities of the Satakunta Hospital District diminished by one.
No changes as of 1 January 2020
Changes 1.1.2019
The English name of three hospital districts has changed:
Etelä-Savo Hospital District > South Savo Hospital District
Pohjois-Savo Hospital District > North Savo Hospital District
Varsinais-Suomi Hospital District > Southwest Finland Hospital District.
Only few changes in headings in 2019 version. Headings in alphabetical order (in Finnish)
On 1 January 2013, number 01 of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District was changed to 25. Jämsä and Kuhmoinen moved from the Central Finland Hospital District as member municipalities of the Pirkanmaa Hospital District at the beginning of 2013. Reisjärvi moved from the North Ostrobothnia Hospital District into a member municipality of the Central Ostrobothnia Hospital District at the beginning of 2013.
On 1 January 2010, Kiikoinen moved from the Satakunta Hospital District to the Pirkanmaa Hospital District.
NB. The National Institute for Health and Welfare uses the code 25 for the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District.
The code for Åland is 00. Åland forms a hospital district of its own that is not tied to the division of hospital districts administered by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
The classification of hospital districts is a classification compiled for national needs.
The correspondence tables are used to describe the correspondence of categories between two different classifications.
Are you looking for statistics?
Statistics and related publications are available in the Statistical data section.Go to statisticsSearch for a category
You can search for a certain category by search word or code and selecting from the provided suggestions. After searching you can filter the results by name, code and description of category and search word. Using filters updates the search results automatically.