Until now, war refugees from Ukraine have been able to seek medical care at three private clinics in Tallinn. However, the state's allocated €14.4 million in funding has been exhausted, and refugees who have remained in Estonia will now need to find dedicated family doctors in the capital.

"If we have Ukrainians that are going to remain in Estonia for longer, we don't want to maintain a parallel system for them; we want to integrate them into the existing system," said EHIF family medicine service manager Laura Johanna Tuisk.

This year, nearly 4,000 war refugees were seen by general practitioners at the Tallinn Center of Medical Specialists, Meliva or Confido, and EHIF's calculations suggest these individuals may not have family doctors as their registered primary care physicians.

The agency emphasized that no one will be left without a family doctor.

"Currently, there are approximately 200 practice lists in Tallinn with availability, and we're also planning to announce a competition for one more practice list in a couple of weeks, considering the incoming patients," Tuisk noted.

Registering with a family doctor requires a registered address in Estonia. The EHIF website provides information on practices accepting new patients and instructions on how to apply to be added to a doctor's practice list.

"If you receive an unjustified rejection, you can contact us with the response, and EHIF staff will assist you in finding a family doctor," the service manager added.

The EHIF's approach to finding available spots, however, has raised concerns among family doctors. Currently, an informal agreement exists that, while the official maximum size for a practice list is 2,000 patients, no more than 1,600 will actually be added.

"If someone complains to EHIF that a family doctor has 1,999 patients and they wanted to be that 2,000th, even though the family doctor knows they were saving these spots for new babies, EHIF will say, 'Oh, but at the time they applied, you had one spot available, so you still have to accept this [new patient],'" explained Estonian Association of Family Physicians (EPS) director Elle-Mall Sadrak.

"I'm worried they'll start leveraging their position of power when it comes to Ukrainians," she added.

Sadrak warned that language barrier issues could arise, as many Ukrainians expect to be communicated with in Russian – which has been the norm at private clinics so far.

"They'll certainly be required to bring a translator or someone with them," she noted. "Because despite the fact that many family doctors and nurses in Tallinn speak Russian, we have many family health centers with few Russian-speaking doctors and nurses, and they will start being more insistent that a translator must accompany them."

Of the 34,000 Ukrainian war refugees currently in Estonia, 19,000 are already registered with a family doctor.

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