Published
5.6.2025 5:16:00

The Deputy-Ombudsman Maija Sakslin has issued a decision according to which the West Uusimaa wellbeing services county acted unlawfully when it did not organise speech therapy for a child within the maximum waiting time guarantee of three months. The complainant’s child waited for access to speech therapy for almost nine months.

According to the report received, the delay in access to therapy was mainly caused by difficulties in recruiting speech therapists to the wellbeing services county. The service could not be carried out as an outsourced service because private speech therapists were not available, either. There was great variation in waiting times to speech therapy within the wellbeing services county. 

According to the established legal praxis in the oversight of legality, an authority cannot ignore its statutory obligations due to a congestion, lack of resources or, for example, problems related to the organisation of work. 

The wellbeing services county has managed to shorten the waiting times to speech therapy in spring 2025, but the times still do not comply with legislation especially in the Vihti-Karkkila-area. The Deputy-Ombudsman considered the measures already taken by the wellbeing services county to be in the right direction, but not sufficient. The wellbeing services county must still continue its efforts to remedy the situation and if necessary, also consider the use of other measures to improve access to therapy to comply with the law. 

The Deputy-Ombudsman requested that the wellbeing services county notify by 31 December 2025 what measures the decision has given rise to and when the waiting times for speech therapy will be in compliance with the law.

The Deputy-Ombudsman’s decision no 4966/2024 has been published (in Finnish) on the website www.oikeusasiamies.fi.

Further information is available from Anne Ilkka, Senior Legal Adviser, tel. +358 9 432 3346.