In case of emergency, call 112 or go to the nearest ER (EMO). Emergency care and an ambulance are provided to all people on the territory of Estonia free of charge, including foreign nationals and people without health insurance. If you have a health concern that does not require emergency care, always contact your family doctor.

If You have a health concern but your family doctor is not available, calling the family doctor counselling line at 1220 can be helpful. In most cases, a family doctor referral is required to access a specialist doctor.

A family doctor referral is not needed for contacting a psychiatrist, gynaecologist, dermatologist, dentist, ophthalmologist, or if you have a major trauma. You can get fast health advice in Estonian, English and Russian from the family doctor helpline at 1220.

If you have a health concern and are unable to reach your family doctor, the family doctor counseling line at 1220 may be a useful resource. When calling from abroad, please dial +372 634 6630. The counseling line offers service in English daily from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Further information about the counseling line can be found at 1220.ee.

Please be advised that this is a paid service.

To access a specialist doctor, a family doctor referral is required. Firstly, contact your family doctor and explain the problem. Your doctor will then decide where to refer you.

A family doctor’s referral is not needed for contacting a psychiatrist, gynaecologist, dermatologist, dentist, ophthalmologist, or if you have a major trauma.

If you can't make it to a doctor's appointment, you must cancel it as soon as possible by calling your doctor's office. This allows them to reschedule the appointment and offer the time slot to another patient in need.

Not cancelling the appointment or doing so at the last minute can cause inconvenience to other patients who need medical attention and may also result in a waste of valuable medical resources.

Please bring data about any previous medical procedures and ongoing treatment and your passport or ID card. Please arrive at the doctor's appointment 20 minutes early to fill out documents at the reception desk.

All healthcare service providers are required by law to document the provision of healthcare services and transmit your health information to the digital health information system - Terviseportaal (Health Portal) as soon as possible. All of the most important medical data describing your health is gathered there.

Using an ID card, residence permit card or mobile ID and Smart-ID, You can log in to the governmental gateway portal or digital health information system Health Portal and see the registered health information of your own and your children (under the age of 18).

For example:

• View your own health information through medical documents compiled by doctors (i.e., case histories, analysis results, referrals);
• Designate representatives for various functions;
• Present declarations of will;
• Check when your information has been viewed and by whom;
• View prescriptions and when they have been purchased;
• Notify all medical institutions at once of changes to your contact information.

If you aren’t sure how to access governmental digital services, please refer to the ID-portal.

Dental care in Estonia is subject to a fee for adults; however, dental care costs for all adults with health insurance can be reimbursed by up to 60 eur per year, but the recipient’s own contribution is 50% of the expenditure.

For example:

Your dental bill: 60 eur

50% paid by the patient: 30 eur

50% paid by the Health Insurance Fund: 30 eur

*30 eur left to use for the same year

The benefit can be used only with dental clinics that are contracted for financing medical treatment with EHIF, and it only applies to essential dental care services and will be calculated automatically by the dentist. There are many dental clinics in Estonia offering services from orthodontics to dental surgery. You can find a list on the website of Tervisekassa.