The story of Sairaala KL
The story of Hospital KL began in 1996, when Asko and Elina Salmi and their colleagues packed their instruments, musical equipment, and families into a motorhome and headed towards Seinäjoki Central Hospital. The purpose of the trip was to perform surgery.
Similar surgery trips were made to most central hospitals, from Tromsø in Norway to Tartu in Estonia and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. However, many central hospitals soon had their own permanent plastic surgery specialists, as the world finally realized that plastic surgery is an essential part of modern surgery.
By 1998, the team had ended up in Jämsä, at the Jokilaakso Hospital, where they continued to perform surgeries. The Jokilaakso Hospital quickly grew. This was due to an agreement with the Norwegian government, which allowed Norwegian women to undergo challenging microsurgical breast reconstructions. Norwegian patients and their families were flown to Central Finland, from where they returned home with new breasts.
Over time, Jokilaakso's operations expanded rapidly, and it was finally time to establish a separate surgical unit. The Jämsä team formed the staff of a new plastic surgery hospital. The team's own reception and operating rooms were opened on Kalevankatu in Jyväskylä in 2004. Sairaala KL was officially born.
Operations continued to expand, resulting in the decision to open a second reception at Sammonkatu in Helsinki. The reception facilities soon became a full-fledged hospital when the Helsinki operations were moved to larger premises on Uudenmaankatu.
It wasn't long before more space was needed in Jyväskylä as well: in 2013, KL moved from its original location on Kalevankatu to Lutakko. A year later, KL also opened a reception in Fuengirola, Spain.
The operations of Sairaala KL have been guided—and continue to be guided to this day—by few cornerstones of good care: trust, expertise, safety, and the smooth running of the entire operation. It is important to know what to do and how to do it–and that not everything needs to be done just for the sake of doing. The essential thing is to meet people and tailor the care to their needs. The way people are treated has an enormous effect.
Today, Sairaala KL operates on Uudenmaankatu in Helsinki. Here, you will be served by highly experienced staff: professional and friendly nurses and trained specialists in plastic surgery and anaesthesiology.
