Does Estonia Needs So Many Hospitals?

Hard times for the Estonian health care: one day after the discussion about the increasing number of professional trying to leave the country, an audit from the State Audit Office examined the sector stating that the current network of hospitals in Estonia and its development plans exceed Estonia’s needs and the state’s financing possibilities.

According to the Audit Office the active treatment hospital network prescribed in the hospital network development plan is too big and not sustainable for the country since there won’t be enough patients, qualified doctors nor money for maintenance for all hospitals.

In recent years, patients of rural areas are treated more frequently in regional or central hospitals of cities not in county hospitals. While in 2008, every third visit was from outside a person’s county, six years ago such visits amounted to just 23% as reported by LETA.

Considering the trend of reduction of population in rural areas and their wish to get services in bigger hospitals, there aren’t enough patients in county hospitals to offer stationary services, said the SAO.

The audit also indicated that 16% of doctors working in hospitals are in retirement age and in county hospitals those in retirement age amount to more than a quarter. This means that the situation in ten tears will be very complicated since the amount of young doctors isn’t increasing fast enough.

The SAO recommended that the Social Ministry compile a new hospital network development that would be a compromise between regional provision of specialised medical care and resources available.