Ahtme Hospital will continue providing inpatient mental health treatment services to Ida-Viru Central Hospital until next spring. According to Ahtme Hospital's chief physician, Georgi Belotserkovski, the main reason for the closure is a staff shortage. The first major change came a year ago when the hospital stopped accepting emergency patients.

"People will no longer receive proper treatment because not everyone can travel to Tartu or Tallinn. As a result, people's health will deteriorate, potentially leading to undesirable consequences. The population is also aging, meaning the number of age-related mental disorders is increasing, so there is a growing need for care," Belotserkovski said.

Ida-Viru Central Hospital is looking for solutions to the potential problems. It has increased its inpatient capacity, but this will not help all patients.

"They will not be left to fend for themselves, as has been suggested in the media. No, we will not abandon them. But it will take some more time before we can announce definitive solutions," said Ida-Viru Central Hospital's chief physician, Pille Letjuka.

Ida-Viru Central Hospital had planned for years to take over inpatient psychiatric services from Ahtme Hospital, but ultimately abandoned plans to build a new facility for patients with mental disorders.

"One reason was that we did not receive the funding we had initially been promised. The second reason is that even if we had received the funding and completed the new building, we would have no one to staff it," Letjuka said.

More than 5,000 patient consultations took place at Ahtme Psychiatric Hospital last year. Following the hospital's closure, there are plans to convert the facility into a nursing home.

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