More Estonians forced to travel outside home county for doctor appointments
Healthcare services in Estonia are increasingly concentrated in larger centers, pushing more patients to travel to other counties for appointments. In counties like Võru and Põlva, such cross-county visits now make up nearly 70 percent of all doctor visits.
A growing share of patients in Estonia must travel outside their home county to see a doctor, as medical services become more concentrated in larger centers. Residents of Võru and Põlva counties make almost 70 percent of their doctor visits elsewhere, with Võru County alone seeing such trips account for two-thirds of all appointments.
Olga Margulis, who lives in Tartu, said finding a suitable appointment at Tartu University Hospital has recently become difficult. In September she needed a pediatric ophthalmologist urgently but found no openings for months, so she turned to a private clinic instead. Her family later needed a pediatric surgeon over concerns about adenoids; unable to get an appointment at Tartu University Hospital, they were seen at the smaller Põlva Hospital by a surgeon who also works in Tartu, who then referred them back to Tartu University Hospital, where he performed the surgery.
Shifting patient flows
Mart Kull, a member of the management board at Viljandi Hospital, said the number of patients from Tartu County treated there has grown sharply over four years — from about 500 contacts in 2022 to nearly 5,000 now. He noted that while waiting times for some specialties at large hospitals can reach four to six months, patients can often be seen at Viljandi in under a month.
The Health Insurance Fund attributes the shift from major cities to smaller regions to demand for certain specialists — such as dermatologists, gynecologists and psychologists — exceeding available capacity. Marko Tähnas, head of the fund's specialist care portfolio, said demand tends to outpace capacity quickly in densely populated areas, meaning mental health services, for instance, may be more accessible in Viljandi County than in Tallinn. The fund acknowledged that concentrating certain services in fewer locations can improve quality when overall demand for that service is not very high.
