The proposed hospital plan was abandoned in summer 2022 but has been revisited.

At present Tallinn is mostly served by two hospitals, the East-Tallinn Central Hospital (ITKH) and the West-Tallinn Central Hospital (LTKH), plus the North Estonia Medical Center (PERH) in Mustamäe.

The negotiations team would among other things address the extent to which the proposed hospital would take over their roles, interfacing with the state funding aspect.

The negotiation team consists of, from the hospitals: Chief doctor at LTKH Arkadi Popov, his equivalent at ITKH, Tarmo Bakler, Konstantin Rebrov, director of the Tallinn Children's Hospital (Tallinna lastehaigla)

The city is represented by: City Secretary Kairi Vaher, Deputy Mayor Karl Sander Kase (Isamaa) and director of the social welfare and health care department Raimo Saadi.

The first meeting with Health Minister Riina Sikkut (SDE) and representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs is to take place this Friday, and the negotiation team's ultimate goal is the construction of a new building for Tallinn Hospital.

"Yes, that's the goal, as we start negotiations with the state," Deputy Mayor Kase told ERR.

"We will be discussing the state's financial guarantee for the investment in Tallinn Hospital," he added.

Kase stressed that the SDE-Reform-Isamaa-Eesti 200 coalition in the capital is unified in its approach, seeking to avoid drawn-out negotiations, since past experience shows that written agreements can be misleading, he said.

Kase pointed to a 2019 agreement between the city and the state which stated the construction of the new hospital was a shared concern.

However, the Reform Party-led state government later cut the allocated funds from the state budget strategy.

"There are medical and technical things to consider regarding how a merged institution between PERH and Tallinn's hospitals would function. But the outcome depends on political will, something which also requires a financial contribution from the state," Kase went on.

"What is lacking on this, whether there is a merger or not [of the hospitals], what is clear is that if a new foundation gets created via cooperation between Tallinn and the state— be it named the Põhja-Eesti hospital or the Tallinn hospital—both parties will be required to make new investments," Kase continued.

"At the same time, the legal analysis Tallinn prepared for itself, which focuses solely on the possible consolidation of Tallinn's hospitals, has been completed. We will move forward with this when it is clear whether the state is willing to contribute," he added.

The project to date had also been dogged by design issues; the contract with the original designers was scrapped in March.

When the project was initially proposed, the question of EU funding was also raised, though was thought at the time to be an unlikely source.

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