Important information

Visits

EVERY visit should always be preregistered either by phone or via the Internet. For a problem that requires faster intervention than the first available time offered to you, please contact a reception desk by phone.

For patients arriving unannounced the waiting time may be 3 hours and priority is for preregistered patients.

If you can’t come to a visit at the agreed time, please cancel your time at the earliest opportunity by calling the reception office by phone at 605 0861.

If you are late for your visit for more than 5 minutes please be aware that priority is given for patients who arrived on time.

If you reach the office after closing time, you will not be accepted and you will need to reschedule a new visit at the reception desk.

If you come to the visit with several family members, please book a separate time for each one.

If you have several different health issues, please contact your family nurse in advance by telephone for advice – perhaps it will be wise to book a longer visit time.

Phone contact

If health issues arise, please contact a reception desk.

If you call before 12 p.m., the nurse will contact you on the same day, if after 12 p.m., then no later than the next day. Please specify your contact information to the reception desk employee and keep your phone at hand. If you do not accept the nurse’s call, you will not be contacted any more.

If your health problem does not require urgent medical intervention, the reception desk employee has the right to register you for a nurse phone contact on the first available time.

If you have a chronic illness

It is good to know the name of your disease and recognise when your condition requires urgent referral to the doctor.

If you use regular medicines for your chronic disease, it is good if you know the names of your medicines. If you use several medicines, ask your doctor for your regimen on paper and always carry it with you.

If you have chronic diseases, it is necessary visit a family nurse or doctor at least once a year, even if you feel good.

Home visits

The need for a home visit is decided by the doctor. Means for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease are always inferior at home compared to office (no investigations and analyses can be performed). The primary counselling can also be made by phone, so please contact your family nurse first, which will listen to you and agree on further action. If necessary, the doctor will call you to clarify the facts and agree on an office or a home visit.

The home visit is subject to a fee. €5 for a house call on a single address (for persons covered by the health insurance fund). House calls are free for pregnant women and children under two years old.

Referral letters

The need for a consultation by a specialist is decided by the family doctor. The patient may visit the following doctors without a referral letter: gynaecologist, skin and venereal diseases doctor, dentist, ophthalmologist, traumatologist with a trauma and tuberculosis doctor.

No referral letters are issued to patients on demand or at a later date.

If you have registered for a specialist doctor’s visit without consulting your family doctor, the doctor has the right to refuse to issue a referral letter and you must pay for the service yourself.

Prescriptions

Repeated prescriptions can be ordered by calling your family nurse; the term for making the prescription is 72 hours.

No sleeping medicines, narcotic or psychotropic medicine prescriptions are issued by phone. Also no prescriptions for medicines that you need for the first time or only once – antibiotics, painkillers, etc. – are issued by telephone. To start such treatment you must visit a doctor.

The names, validity and new prescriptions, etc., can be checked on the Internet at: www.eesti.ee.
On the page, you can sign up either via bank or ID card. On page select -> E-services -> For the citizen -> Health and health protection -> Prescriptions.

Certificate for incapacity for work (TVL), sick leave and caretaking leave

To open the Certificate for incapacity for work contact your family medicine centre on the day of illness. The certificate of incapacity for work cannot be issued afterwards, except if you have any other document certifying illness:

  • Ambulance card
  • Hospital or ED excerpt

In these cases the certificate can be issued up to 2 days after becoming ill.

If it later turns out that you don’t need a certificate for incapacity or disability, notify your family nurse so the certificate of incapacity for work can be annulled.

The family doctor nationwide hotline 1220

The family doctor hotline 1220 can be used for simpler cases of health problems for medical advice in Estonian and Russian, 24 hours a day.

Checklist for Medicum family medicine centre patients.pdf