Oulun Omahoito Service is a public Internet Service promoting resident-led social welfare and healthcare services administrated and maintained by the City of Oulu; the Service is intended mainly for the use of residents of the City of Oulu (hereinafter the “User”). The service also contains, and allows access to, materials and services produced by the City of Oulu partners (hereinafter “Partners”) and other third parties.

Use of Service between the City of Oulu and the User is agreed upon by these Terms of Use. The User shall read these Terms of Use and agree to be bound by them, before the User can access the Service, irrespective of whether accessing the Service or a part of it requires registration.

When accessing the Service the User agrees and undertakes to fully comply to the Terms of Use in force at that particular time. The Service Provider reserves the right to change the Terms of Service if necessary.

Use of the Service is free unless otherwise explicitly stated.

City of Oulu
Social and Health Services
PO Box 37
90015 City of Oulu

Director responsible for the Oulun Omahoito Service: Kirsti Ylitalo-Katajisto, Director of Health Care and Social Welfare

Director in charge of the health care sections of the Oulun Omahoito Service: Jorma Mäkitalo, Director of Health Care

Person in charge of the health care and social welfare registry matters of the Oulun Omahoito Service: Anne Rajala

Director in charge of the social welfare sections of the Omahoito Service: Head of Social Welfare Arja Heikkinen

The email address of the Oulun Omahoito Service for any general issues: oulu10(at)ouka.fi

The electronic Oulun Omahoito Service provided by the City of Oulu for the residents is an extensive set of services consisting of services and content produced by the City of Oulu but also contacts and links to other websites and electronic services provided by external partners and other third parties.

The services provided by the third parties may contain, in addition to these Terms of Use, also other terms and conditions not entered into this document which the User shall read and agree upon before using the service.

The User shall pay attention to the website addresses of the services they are using and to the separate terms and conditions contained therein to decide whether the said service is provided by the City of Oulu or whether it is a service provided by a third party.

In compliance with these Terms of Use, the User will not get any other rights but the right to use the Service.

In order to use the service, the User shall agree on and comply to (i) these Terms of Use and (ii) service-specific additional terms and conditions possibly defined for separate services included in the Service and (iii) terms and conditions of free or paid services provided by third parties and accessible through the Service. If the separate terms applicable for individual services conflict with these Terms of Use, the service-specific special terms shall apply and be complemented by these Terms of Use.

Use of a particular set of services or an individual service included in the Service may require registration and identification. Furthermore, some services can be accessed also by a mobile device, for instance by a mobile phone. The above matters are stated in relation to each service respectively.

Only natural persons can register as Users. The City of Oulu reserves the right to refuse to register a User.

Access to the sections of the Service requiring registration is personal, and the right of access must not be passed to third parties. The Service may be used only for personal, non-commercial purposes. The User may not use the Service or any part of it for other purposes without a prior written permission by the City of Oulu or the Partners.

The content and layout of the Service are protected by copyright. All the rights, including copyright and other intellectual property rights, belong to the City of Oulu and/or the Partners or other third parties. The User has no right to reproduce the Service in any manner or form, nor translate, modify, adapt or otherwise alter the Service. The User may, however, save individual data from the Service for their own use. Nonetheless, individual parts of the Service reproduced by the User may not form a substantial part of the Service or its contents.

When using the Service to the extent permitted by this Agreement, the name of the City of Oulu and/or its Partner must be cited. Using the Service for information service purposes is prohibited. The above conditions apply also to materials sent by the City of Oulu to the User by email or by another electronic means of communication.

The City of Oulu maintains the Service and partly provides the contents. The City of Oulu strives to maintain the highest possible level of Service. Every attempt has been made to ensure the correctness, accuracy, reliability and usability of the information contained in the Service before publication, and the accuracy and functionality of the information is reviewed on a regular basis.

While the Service includes and gives access also to content and services provided by Partners, other third parties and/or the User, the said content and services are the responsibility of the Partner, other third party and/or the User respectively. The City of Oulu is not responsible for content found on or linked from the Service that is provided and published by a third party, or for a service provided by a third party.

The City of Oulu does not guarantee uninterrupted and error-free operation of the Service. The Service is reviewed regularly to prevent malfunctions. The City of Oulu has the right to suspend the operation of the Service in order to modify or revise it, to carry out maintenance and installation work, or for other similar reasons related to the Service, or if legislation or other government regulation requires it. However, the User will be notified of interruptions as early as possible through the Service.

The City of Oulu will not be responsible to the User or to third parties for any factual or technical errors or omissions that the Service may contain, nor for any direct or indirect damages caused by the use or interpretation of the information contained in the Service, whether these errors result from an oversight, malfunction in the Service or in data communications, from maintenance work or from any other reason.

The City of Oulu and the Partners have the right to change the contents, functioning and the access to the Service in order to develop the service or for any other reason deemed necessary without limitation, as and when they see fit.

The City of Oulu will not, in principle, store and/or transfer the data entered by Users when the Service is modified or when any contents or functionalities of the service are disposed of. Every effort is made to notify the Users of any changes in the Services as early as possible so that the User can, if they so wish, take measures to preserve any data they have entered into the Service.

The information, guidance and advice given in the Service is not intended for legal, commercial, medical, or any other information, guidance or advice binding the City of Oulu, the Partners or other third parties, and thus the information cannot be invoked as grounds for claims against the City of Oulu, or any other party.

The User is responsible for the acquisition, maintenance and use of the hardware, software and data connections required for the use of the Service, as well as for all the costs related to the use of the Service.

The User is responsible for the correctness and delivery of the information they provide through the Service. The User declares and ensures that they will not transmit any inappropriate material, and that the materials they publish in the Service will be legal and in compliance with good practice and will not violate the rights of third parties, and that the User has the right to such activity.

The User shall ensure that their identifying information is kept confidential. The User is responsible for all activities in the Service which take place using their identifying information and for any possible costs, payments, obligations and penalties incurred. If the User’s identification tools are lost or accessed by an outsider, the User must immediately notify the organization who issued the identification tool.

The User shall use the Service in compliance with these Terms of Use, Finnish legislation, regulatory specifications and good practice and shall be responsible for any damage caused by unlawful use of the Service and materials contained therein to the City of Oulu or its Partners, or to third parties. The City of Oulu has the right to stop the use of the Service, if there is reason to suspect it is contrary to good practice and against the law.

The service may not be used for publication or distribution of materials protected by copyright or another similar right without the rights holder's permission, or otherwise in a manner that is detrimental, offensive or damaging to the City of Oulu, or to the Partners acting as service providers, to other Users or to third parties.

The User shall be fully responsible for any intentional or negligent damage caused to the City of Oulu, to other Users and to third parties by using the Service in a manner that is against the law, contrary to this Agreement or good practice.

The City of Oulu collects personal information submitted by a registered User (intended use of personal data) and information regarding the use of the Service by the User in a register ("the Oulun Omahoito customer register"). User’s personal information will be stored by the City of Oulu as long as necessary to implement the purpose of the Service. Therefore the User’s information shall be stored as long as there is a client relationship between the City of Oulu and the User.

The information may be used in planning and developing the healthcare operations of the City of Oulu, as well as for statistical research.

The information provided by the User may by consent be used to maintain the patient relationship between the City of Oulu Social Welfare and Health Care Services and the User (see the Terms of Use for the Message Service). The City of Oulu will not disclose the information it collects about the User to outsiders without a justification stated in the law.

The contact information provided by the User may upon consent be used for delivering information bulletins regarding Omahoito Service through the Omahoito Service and by email. The information bulletins may relate to new functionalities of the Omahoito Service, for example.

When processing the Users’ personal information the City of Oulu complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (679/2016), Data Protection Act (1050/2018) and other legislation relating to data protection and good information processing practices.

If a user of the Oulu Omahoito Service moves to an area served by the Joint Authority of Kainuu Region, the Oulunkaari Joint Authority or the Joint Municipal Authority of Wellbeing in Raahe District, where a similar technical platform for self-care is in use, the information entered by the User into the Oulun Omahoito Service (home measurements, health card, own files, messages and laboratory test results) will be available to the User. This information is available only to the User until the User gives permission to a professional to see the data recorded by the User.

The User is aware that the online environment and Internet services are not completely secure. The User is responsible for appropriate information security procedures of their own data systems.

The City of Oulu and the Partners responsible for providing the Service will arrange the data protection of the Service in a generally acceptable manner and effectively, and by using appropriate technical solutions will seek to prevent unauthorized access to their data systems. Authentication-based information transmitted by the Service will always be transmitted using means of communication encrypted as strongly as possible.

These Terms of Use are valid until further notice. The City of Oulu has the right to unilaterally change these Terms of Use, if necessary, by notifying the User through the Service. When the Terms of Use change, the User shall agree to the terms again when logging in the Service.

The Terms of Use shall bind the User under all circumstances as long as they continue to use the Service.

Any disputes arising from these Term of Use or from the Service referred to in these Terms of Use as well as from service-specific terms and conditions and from any eventual agreements made about the Service should primarily be solved through negotiations between the City of Oulu and/or the Partners and the User. If the negotiations are not successful, the disputes will be solved at the Oulu District Court according to Finnish legislation.

More information about the Service and its use is available from the Maintenance of the Oulun Omahoito Service by email at oma10 (at) ouka.fi

The Message Service refers to communications included in the Service, i.e. chat and message service.

Read the service description and the Terms of Use before submitting your question.

1. A licensed health professional working for the City of Oulu will answer general questions you have sent regarding health or illness. Questions regarding Social Welfare will be answered by the Social Services personnel.

2. Your questions will be answered within three (3) working days. The answer will only be based on the information you have submitted. Responsibility for the correctness of the provided information lies with you.

3. Your identifying information (name and personal identity code) will always be transmitted to the person answering your message.

4. The answer may be supported by your medical records in the City of Oulu patient information system, if necessary. Information essential for the patient or client relationship will be recorded in the social services or patient information system.

5. This service is not intended as a replacement for advice, examinations and treatment provided by a doctor or another health professional. The healthcare message service is not intended for diagnoses, and the answers given cannot and may not be used as a basis for a diagnosis or a choice of treatment. If your question requires an urgent answer or detailed treatment instructions, please, consult your own health care providers, health care centre or social services unit.

6. The responder of your question is bound by confidentiality and is not to disclose any information regarding the sender’s health or any other sensitive information.

7. The City of Oulu and the provider of the answering service are not responsible for any damage possibly caused by the service if these terms and the general Terms of Use have not been complied to, and no damage has been caused either deliberately or by negligence.