Download Thanks to borderless dental care, sparsely

Thanks to borderless dental care,
sparsely-populated areas achieve a
good quality of life
A couple of years ago the County Council in Norrbotten carried out a comprehensive review of
dental care in the sparsely-populated areas. The results of this investigation led to the closure
of several dental clinics. And these closures in turn led to journeys of up to 180 km just to visit
the nearest dentist. The Borderless dental care project, a project within INTERREG IIIA North,
therefore opened its own dental clinic as a cooperation project between Swedish Norrbotten
and a similarly closure-affected area in Finland.
Anna Marakatt was a dental nurse in the town of
Karesuando in Norrland, Sweden, and was one of the
dental nurses working in Norrbotten county who
risked losing her job because of the closures. At the
beginning of 2002, she was contacted by colleagues in
Muonio, Finland, who had also been affected by
similar closures. A cooperation between them would
mean a large patient base and therefore the
opportunity of retaining access to dentists in the area.
“I was contacted by colleagues in Finland and asked
if it was in any way possible for us to cooperate,”
explains Anna Marakatt. “We had the same problem,
that of long journeys of up to 180 km to the clinic
and back. A lot of people were forced to take a day
off work to visit the dentist. And anyway, the distance
between the two existing clinics is just a bridge.”
Access to dentists is a quality of life issue
Having access to a dentist
is an issue affecting quality
of life and service for the
local
population.
Therefore, Anna Marakatt
in turn contacted the
county administrative board
for
Norrbotten,
Sweden. The county administrative board encouraged her to research
the possibilities of a
cooperation with colleagues in Finland, and
through
INTERREG
Anna Marakatt, presenting
the project at a conference IIIA she received financial
support to run the project.
In December 2002, the Borderless dental care project
began with a meeting with the Finnish project
participants, with Anna Marakatt as Project Manager.
Together they drew up guidelines for a common
project and a common dental clinic.
“At the initial stage, the aim of the project was to
investigate whether it was possible to have a Swedish
and Finnish cooperation,” says Anna Marakatt. “We
started with that because Sweden and Finland have
different rules and regulations.”
A bridge crossing the border between Sweden and
Finland. The Borderless dental care project provides
Swedes and Finns on both sides of the border with easy
access dental care.
The project organisation consists of a management
committee with two members from each of the two
participating countries. Anna Marakatt works as
Project Manager, but also works 50% as a dental
nurse at the clinic. The management committee meets
every third month to go through the project
definition and the goals that the group have set. At
each meeting, the committee revises what the next
step of the project will be.
“When we had researched which laws and regulations
apply in both countries and established that we could
cooperate, we went on to recruit a dentist,” explains
Anna Marakatt. “We distributed information about
the clinic to every household on both sides of the
border and installed the necessary equipment.”
Together a good patient base was created
A large part of the work was deciding what the
resource requirements were in the area and what size
clinic would be required. This formed the basis for
how the costs would be split between the project’s
two partners. In addition, the project developed
common administration and routines, which turned
out to be complicated.
“When it comes to laws and regulations, it turned out
that Finland has a shorter working day than Sweden,”
explains Anna Marakatt. “After investigation, we
discovered that you must follow the laws of the
country where the clinic is located, which in this case
is Sweden.”
Finland is also an hour ahead of Sweden, which in the
beginning meant that the clinic had separate
appointment systems. Now, however, there is a
common appointment system, because the Finnish
computer has been set to Swedish time.
At the dental clinic today, there is a patient base of
approx. 1 600 patients and they are provided with
care in the three languages spoken in the area:
Swedish, Finnish and Sami. The clinic employs one
full-time and one 50% part-time dental nurse and a
dentist that works 60%.
With support from INTERREG, the project has
progressed well. The only problem that Anna
Marakatt has experienced during the project was
linking the computers in Finland and Sweden.
“We were going to connect a copper link to a
computer link in Sweden,” explains Anna Marakatt.
“It took three months for Telia in Sweden and
Teliasonera in Finland just to investigate the
assignment. And then only an hour to do the job.”
New project develops Borderless dental
care
Today the Borderless dental care project is complete.
Instead there is now a continuation project in place
called Borderless digital dental care. The new project
will add to and develop the old project, e.g. by
creating the opportunity to send digital images via a
broadband cable between the clinic in Karesuando
and colleagues in Muoni.
For Anna Marakatt, and the residents of the area,
support from INTERREG IIIA has meant that the
clinic in Karesuando lives on.
“It goes without saying that it’s positive for us that
the national dental health service lives on,” concludes
Anna Marakatt. “It’s great that you can get EU
funding to investigate and develop the opportunities
for starting up a cooperation. And students that
previously had to take a day off school to visit the
dentist can now concentrate on their schoolwork
instead.”
Borderless dental care
Lead Partner: Norrbotten County Council
Partners: Muonion-Enontekiön Kansanterveystyön
Kuntayhtymä, Finland
Programme: INTERREG IIIA North
Project duration: 5.12.2002 – 31.12.2004
Total cost: EUR 179 279
ERDF funding: EUR 107 567
Contact:
Klas Tunbrå
Norrbotten County Council
971 89 Luleå
Sweden
[email protected]
T: +46 920 781 91