I arrived here in Finland yesterday afternoon. I was really fortunate to be met by another HOPE participant, Steve - he has friends in Helsinki so they met me from the airport and took me by car to the hotel. I went out for what was going to be a short walk but ended up nearly 1 1/2 hours. Helsinki is by the sea so I walked into the main centre and found the Lutheran cathedral and then the Roman Catholic cathedral - they stood out on the map and were really beauttiful buildings. I really hope that I can upload some photos and attach them at some point. I then walked round the coast road and saw some very modern ferry boats / cruise ships and also lots of very traditional wooden boats. The streets are very wide and spacious. There is a definite feeling of space. There were not many people about, particularly as it was their mothering Sunday. I then quickly walked back to the hotel to meet the other HOPE participants.

We met in the hotel lobby and went for a meal. Steve's friend had recommended a restaurant near to the hotel so we went there. I had asked him what was traditional Finnish food and he said fish soup and meatballs and mashed potatoes. So I ordered the meatballs and mashed potato. It was very nice and very different to what I would usually eat! Steve came and joined us after the Manchester City football match - he'd been watching it with his friends!

There are 7 of us here in Finland. The 3 men are based in Turku. The 4 women are spead out - 2 in Juyveskilin (not sure if that's spelt right at all!!!) and one in Koipu (I think) and me in Tampere. The men are from Spain - Cesar, Switzerland - Lars (although he is actually German) and Steve from Derby. The women are from the Netherlands - Deanne, Malta - Lorraine and Latvia - Agatha and of course me!

Today we were met by the national co-ordinator, Arto. He walked us to the building where he is based in Helsinki and we then had presentations about the Finnish culture and also one from a medical director about the healthcare system here in Finland. It is based on municipalities. There are currently 336 of these for a population of 5.4 million. These municipalities are very varied in terms of population size and geographical areas covered. In the north the population is very sparse and so the municipalties are very large areas, The municipalities are controlled by councils which are elected very 4 years. These councils control what is spent on education, health and welfare.

From May 2011 people are no longer tied to one municipality and so can move around depending on their work / choices. They currently have a 3 tier system with Health Centres as the first point of contact. There are salaried doctors based in all of these and teams of nurses. They are trying to expand their home nursing so that will be very interesting to find out more. The sescond tier are the general hospitals but these are really being phased out and replaced by enlarging the third tier - the large teaching hospitals of which there are currently 20 with 5 being university hospitals. One of which is here in Tampere and where I will mainly be based - TAYS.

Everyone who works pays taxes to cover their health insurance and most of their healthcare is covered by this. In 2010 Finland's toatl health expenditure was 16 billion euros which is 8.9% of the GNP. InEngland for the same year ours was 8.7% so very similar. They have a good system of sharing records between primary and secondary carfe, although apparently the best for country for this is Estonia!

I think that is enough facts for now. The highlight of the day was lunch - I met my first reindeer - on my plate as my starter!!! Then we had smoked salmon, followed by a saffron pancake. There was wine too! At about 3.30 we went back to the hotel and then to the station to catch our trains. The men went off to the bar before catching their train and we, women, were all able to book onto the same train. It left Helsinki at 4.30. I got to Tampere at 6.15 and was met by Pirjo - my host.

And after a short taxi ride here I am in my flat! It has a small kitchen, a shower and a living room with a bed settee. Pirjo has sorted out a modem hence I have written this long epic. However, I wanted to refelct on what has been such an exciting couple of days.

Pirjo has arranged my first horse riding lesson for Thursday and I will get to drive a horse carriage as well. Andrew (my husband) is convinced that this is a ruse to get to experience their healthcare system first hand - when I fall off the horse!! At the weekend she has booked a slot for me to use the washing machine and we are going to have a walk around the local area and visit the doughnut cafe - so much for the idea I would be eating much more healthily here!! On Sunday we are having lunch at the Nasinneula Tower. the folowing weekend I am going to the Finnish glass museaum at Riihmaki and then on the Sunday we all go back to Helsinki for our mid-evaluation meeting. We have to present at the final conference in Berlin as a group so need to meet up and start planning this. The overall theme is ageing workforce: ageing population and the idea is that each group present the findings of their host country of how they are working to manage this. (It's also a competition so we ahve already decided we ahve to win it - great to be with equally competitive people!).

I will make sure I do not write anywhere near so much in future blogs but there was just so much I wanted to share with everyone.

It will be great to see your comments and I will endeavour to remember how to get back onto this to make future posts! And hopefully work out how to go through Google Chrome so I can attach pictures.

Hei Hei (I think that's one way of saying goodbye!) from Finland

Penny