Estonia proposes reforms to address family doctor shortages

The Estonian government has approved a draft proposal to improve the organization of family doctor replacements and ensure medical care accessibility, particularly in regions facing doctor shortages. Earlier this year, approximately 132,055 people—nearly one-tenth of Estonia's population—were without a permanent family doctor, relying instead on substitute physicians.

Under the new proposal, if a family doctor leaves a health center, the center must arrange a replacement for up to three months. If a new doctor is not found or the physician does not work within a health center, the Health Insurance Fund will take over the responsibility of organizing replacements. Additionally, the Health Board may consider removing a doctor from a patient list after 30 days instead of the current 60 days to facilitate faster solutions for patients.

To manage workload, the proposal suggests an ideal patient list size of 1,600. Doctors may refuse new patients if they can be directed to another list in the same area with fewer than 1,600 patients. Social Minister Karmen Joller stated that the goal is to ensure people receive help and to allow doctors more time to listen to their patients by distributing the workload more evenly.