Residents' satisfaction with Estonian health system grew last year - poll

Photo: Reuters / Scanpix

Estonian residents' opinions about the organization of the country's health care system, quality and availability of medical care improved in 2012, it appears from a survey by GfK Custom Research Baltic the results of which were published on Wednesday.

The aspects that people were the most satisfied with in health care organization were the system of family doctors, good attitude and friendliness of doctors, availability of health care, and digital prescription. Long queues to specialist treatment were named as the biggest problem, the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs said.

Assessments of the organization of health care improved 5 percent in comparison with 2011, with 67 percent of residents satisfied or rather satisfied with it, according to the outcome of the survey commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Health Insurance Fund. Those seeing the quality of health care as good or rather good made up 80 percent, the highest percentage of all time. Availability of health care was seen to be good or rather good by 55 percent, compared with 51 percent in 2011.

It appears from the survey that 72 percent of residents turned to a doctor with a health problem during 2012. While most saw their family doctor, 38 percent went to a specialist doctor. The number of respondents for whom the interval between making an appointment and the appointment date was longer than two months grew.

"Although we have taken systemic action to reduce queues to treatment, it remains an important topic for us," Tanel Ross, CEO of the Health Insurance Fund, said in remarks released by the ministry.

The number of people who were able to choose a cheaper variant of a medicine when buying a prescription medicine at a pharmacy during the past 12 months increased significantly compared to 2011. Those satisfied with the process of the last purchase they made using a digital prescription made up 85 percent.

GfK Custom Research Baltic conducted oral interviews with 1,501 residents of ages 15-74 for the survey from Nov. 15 to Dec. 9, 2012.