Based on the very important info in "Further information" field: Can you please tell me what are the least costly options for me here in Finland, as a Finnish…

The commune is responsible for the public health services. The private sector supplements the public health services. (In some cases the patient is justified to get a little refund from the Social Insurance Institution (Kansaneläkelaitos) if he / she has used private sector health services).

The health centre of the commune takes care of the primary health care. By law the duties of the health centre are:

• to take care of the health counselling and national health education, for example contraceptive advice.
• to arrange the common physical examinations and screenings.
• to take care of the child welfare- and maternity clinics.
• to arrange the school-, student- and occupational health care
• to arrange dental care
• to arrange the health care of the city dwellers and the medical treatment of the emergency patients regardless of the dwelling place of the patient
• to arrange visiting nurses and "home nursing"
• to arrange medical treatment and rehabilitation to the patients in the "bed wards" of the health centres.
• to arrange the mental health service, but only the kind that is appropriate to give in a health centre
• to take care of the transportation of the patients
• to arrange occupational health care services
• to take care of some other duties by law (for example contagious disease and welfare for intoxicant).

Some of the healt care is free of charge (the costs are paid in the taxes) and some health care services have a basic charge. Besides that there might be payments, but the charge is usually still lower than it would be in the private sector.

At first You could call the 24-hour health services information number 10023 for guidance concerning medical care and instructions as to where to go for medical care.

Generality of up-to-date information You are searching for is to be found on the web, of course mostly in Finnish and Swedish but often in English also. Here are some links that might be useful to You:

http://www.hel.fi/tervv/english/ (Helsinki City Health Department)

http://www.hel.fi/english/index.html (Helsinki City)

http://www.kunnat.net/k_etusivu.asp?path=1;161;279 (The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities)

http://www.suomi.fi/english/immigrants_and_emigrants/ (Public services. This site is in English but You'll find more information in Finnish at: http://www.suomi.fi/suomi/ )