Hospital: increasing number of ER patients stranded for the night
The North Estonia Medical Center, the largest hospital in the country, says the number of people who have to spend the night in the emergency room's waiting room is growing.
"Often people don't have taxi car fare or their families don't come to pick them up. The relatives are all somewhere far away, like Finland, Russia, Belarus, or there aren't any," said Vassili Novak, the dircetor of emergency medicine at the hospital, in Postimees daily.
Novak said the problem lay in public transport declining in coverage and frequency.
Novak said that sometimes people skip going to the ER because they aren't sure how they can get home later.
Editor: K. Rikken