Estonian government approves several updates to primary healthcare rules
Health centers in Estonia will have to provide up to three months' temporary coverage when a family doctor leaves a practice, among several new rules approved Thursday.
A bill of amendments the government greenlit Thursday will require health centers to find a replacement for a departing family doctor for up to three months, with the option to stay on longer by agreement.
If no permanent doctor is found to take over the previous doctor's practice list within that time, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) would step in.
A family doctor planning to leave a health center with their practice list would generally have to give six months' notice, although the doctor and center could arrange an earlier departure by agreement. The change is intended to give health centers time to reorganize.
Among other changes, the Health Board will be able to take over a doctor's practice list after 30 days, down from the current 60, if their patients have gone without family medical care.
Patient caps to be raised
The practice list cap will also be raised to 2,000 patients, or 2,400 if an additional doctor is available, although the bill still recommends a maximum of 1,600 patients.
Doctors with more than 1,600 patients will be able to turn away new patients if another family doctor in the area has fewer than 1,600. They will also have to direct patients to information on available practice lists.
The changes are intended to more evenly distribute patients among practices.
Pending Riigikogu approval, the amendments are set to take effect next March 1.
At the start of this year, 77 practice lists covering more than 132,000 patients across Estonia still lacked a permanent family doctor, with nearly one in 10 residents receiving primary care from temporary replacements.
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Editor: Karin Koppel, Aili Vahtla
