What is family physician care?

General medical care

Ambulatory health care service provided by a family physician and health care professionals working with the family physician.

Family physician

A medical specialist that has acquired relevant specialty and operates based on the family physician’s patient list or as a medical specialist without a patient list.

Family nurse

A health care professional with occupational qualifications as a nurse that works with a family physician and provides health services to persons on the family physician’s patient list.

Family physician’s patient list

List of persons serviced by a family physician. Each family physician has one patient list.

 

 

Family physician with patient list

A medical specialist that has acquired relevant specialty and operates based on the family physician’s patient list. The Republic of Estonia Health Board approves a family physician to have a patient list. General medical care provided by a family physician with a patient list is funded by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund.

Family physician without patient list

A medical specialist that has acquired relevant specialty and operates as a medical specialist without a patient list with their activities being subject to provisions that regulate outpatient specialized medical care.

Family physician’s service area

An area of a municipality or municipalities within the confines of which a family physician and the health care professionals working with the family physician make house calls if required within the framework of providing general medical care. The family physician provides emergency care to persons that live or are temporarily staying in their service area but are not included on the family physician’s patient list.

Family physician’s reception hours

A family physician’s reception hours must fall within the time period of 8 AM -6 PM on every working day. A family physician’s reception hours amount to at least 20 hours a week (five working days a week, at least four hours a day, whereat at least one set of reception hours a week falls on an evening ending at 6 PM).

Time for other activities prescribed by the family physician’s job instructions (e.g. consultations via means of IT) is added to above reception hours.

Securing a visit with a family physician

Family health centers must make sure patients with acute health disorders are seen by their family physician on the same day the patient requests a visit; in other cases, a patient must be given a time for a visit within five working days. To adhere to these deadlines, family physicians must extend their reception hours if necessary.

A medical certificate not related to provision of a health care service must be issued to the patient within 15 days.