If you cannot attend your booked appointment, please cancel or reschedule it at least 24 hours in advance. This way, we can offer the appointment to other clients and improve the efficiency of our services.
– We want to reduce the number of missed health and social services appointments. In 2024, clients in Helsinki missed a total of 102,000 health care appointments and 75,000 social welfare appointments without cancelling them. Reducing missed appointments will help us provide clients with faster access to our services in future,” says Juha Jolkkonen, Head of the Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Division.
Stricter non-attendance policy for health care services
We charge a non-attendance fee of EUR 56.70 for missed health care appointments and for appointments cancelled less than 24 hours in advance, unless there is an acceptable reason for the cancellation, such as sudden illness. The new 24-hour rule applies to appointments booked on or after 10 May 2025.
The non-attendance fee applies to the following health care services, including remote appointments:
- doctors’ and nurses’ appointments
- appointments with physiotherapists, occupational therapists or other health care professionals
- dental appointments with dentists, oral hygienists and dental assistants
- specialised health care outpatient appointments (such as psychiatric, internal medicine and geriatric outpatient clinics)
- school and student health care appointments
- follow-up treatment or examination appointments booked by the City
The fee also applies to health care appointments that are otherwise free of charge.
The non-attendance fee is not charged:
- to clients under the age of 18
- for the following substance abuse services: outpatient detoxification, needs assessment for opioid substitution treatment, opioid substitution treatment, and hepatitis C treatment
- for mass screenings and inspections targeted at specific age groups
When booking an appointment, you will be provided with instructions on how to cancel it and the applicable terms.
How to cancel an appointment in our services: hel.fi/cancel-your-appointment