Minister of Health and Labor Peep Peterson (SDE) met with representatives of the Estonian Psychiatric Association (EPS) on Thursday, where they discussed the nationwide shortage of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in public medicine and agreed that mental healthcare has been playing second fiddle to physical healthcare in Estonia.
According to National Institute for Health Development (TAI) figures, a total of 228 psychiatrists were practicing in Estonia in 2019, more than half of whom were near or approaching pension age, the Ministry of Social Affairs said in a press release Friday. Under the psychiatry specialty development plan drawn up by the EPS, however, the ideal total should be 260, or 30-40 more than that. At Thursday's meeting, Peterson and association representatives discussed the role Estonian Health Insurance Fund (Haigekassa, EHIF) prices could help keep mental health professionals on the labor market and in public medicine.
"We're no longer competing with foreign countries for workers; homegrown residency graduates prefer the private sector for financial reasons," EPS chair Anne Kleinberg highlighted. Peterson also acknowledged that while societal expectations on psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are high, the latter nonetheless aren't highly valued in solidarity-based financing of medicine
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