Over 4.7 million visits paid to family doctors in Estonia in 2017

More than one million people paid a total of 4.7 million visits to their family doctors in Estonia last year.
Another 1.5 million visits were paid to family nurses working on family doctor teams, and 250,000 calls were made to the country's family doctor hotline, the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) said on Tuesday.
EHIF paid out a total of €114 million toward family healthcare in 2017.
A family physician's therapy fund has also been made available to family doctors, enabling them to refer patients to specialists other than specialist doctors. Last year, money from this fund financed services provided to 11,000 patients by clinical psychologists, speech therapists and physical therapists.
In 2017, EHIF began concluding health center contracts which will allow people turning to such a center to access care from a team of specialists including family doctors, family nurses, a mental health nurse, a midwife and a physical therapist. Three contracts for the financing of such centers were signed last year, including two in Tallinn and one in Tartu.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS