Oulunkylä Rehabilitation Centre
Katja Ilvonen, Managing Director, Oulunkylä Rehabilitation Centre
As Managing Director, I am responsible for the operations and finances of Oulunkylä Rehabilitation Centre, which is an operational, tax-liable foundation belonging to Helsinki City Group. The centre provides rehabilitation services in Helsinki for the elderly and for people of working age. Its services include demanding post-operative and injury rehabilitation (nearly 1,400 periods/patients annually), and other rehabilitation to promote versatile functional capacity.
A lightweight organisation governs and manages the foundation, with key managerial staff leading basic functions and operations in person. The Managing Director is responsible for major projects in which the work of our own key staff and expertise is supported by external specialists, including procurement and legal reports.
Procurement Lawyers assists in a wide range of projects
Procurement Lawyers have helped our foundation in a wide range of projects, including procurements, various legal reports and specialist assignments.
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We have retained this firm to take charge of numerous procurement processes on a turnkey basis. These public procurements of goods and services have included the rehabilitation centre patient information system, the nursing staff call-in system, laboratory services, patient transportation, occupational health care services and ICT services. Procurement Lawyers have also served in a consultative capacity, assisting us in preparing procurements of in-house entities and reverse in-house entities.
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Procurement Lawyers have prepared several reports for our foundation, with the most important concerning the reform of social services, health care and regional government, and scenarios related to the future status of the foundation. A representative of the firm has also accompanied me as a specialist at strategic negotiations and meetings. We are continuing to review scenarios as the reform of social services, health care and regional government progresses.
Besides procurement and reports, we have participated in training events arranged by Procurement Lawyers and commissioned specialist lectures for key foundation staff members. I have also commissioned customised specialist lectures for seminars of some associations working in the health and social services sector to which our foundation is affiliated and in which I have also been personally involved. The topics of these lectures have concerned difficult, topical issues in the evolving health and social services environment.
The reform of social services, health care and regional government is leading to contractual amendments and other procurement law challenges
The reformed health and social services format currently under review should have a significant impact on the work and role of the private health and social services sector in the field of wellbeing. The reform will evidently bring contractual amendments in the social and health care sector, and will also have a significant impact on the rehabilitation sector that I represent, where there are numerous private operators and organisers. This means that funding comes from several channels, and dismantling such multichannel funding is one aim of the general reform. Organisational status issues will have to be prepared and potentially redefined as client-provider formats change to meet the conditions of health and social services legislation and competition law. A range of other procurement law challenges are also foreseeable.
Nearly a decade of co-operation has added both practical and strategic value
Besides successful competitive tendering and procurements, the legal reports prepared by Procurement Lawyers have added significant value to our operations. I think it is very important for a commissioned report to be cogent, with concrete and concise conclusions. This never fails to bring added value. Such conclusions have enabled us to advance the foundation’s strategic planning – or occasionally to pause at some point, change direction and seek a new strategic path.
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We have been working with Procurement Lawyers for nearly ten years, requesting a wide range of assignments. This long-sustained client relationship and co-operation testifies to our high degree of confidence in the work of Procurement Lawyers. We have been particularly appreciative of the strong expertise of Procurement Lawyers regarding in-house law, competition neutrality legislation, and also issues in foundation and contract law. The substantial expertise of the firm in the health and social services sector and its specific legislation has also been essential to us. We have established the understanding and accordingly formulated the concrete goals that are required for working smoothly, even at the stage of defining the assignment.
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Collaboration has been straightforward and communication has been reciprocal. Planning has sometimes been inspiringly innovative, while never losing sight of legal facts and conditions where required. Finnish Procurement Lawyers Attorneys Ltd has proved to be a highly effective, competent and reliable partner that takes strong responsibility for the outcome of its work.