Last year, 53 hospitals provided hospital care in Estonia: 34 were acute care and 19 were nursing care hospitals. At the end of 2018, there were a total of 6,658 hospital beds, of which 1,751 were long-term nursing care beds and 282 were pediatric beds. The total number of hospital beds has fallen slightly in recent years – in 2018, hospital beds were 2.8%, nursing care beds 4.3% and pediatric beds 2.4% less than in 2017.
A total of 26,444 children (aged 0-14) and 194 042 adults were admitted to hospital, of whom 19,877 received nursing care. The number of hospitalised children and adults increased compared to 2017 (2.6% and 0.03%, respectively). The number of nursing care recipients decreased by 4.6%.
Day care was provided by a total of 59 health care institutions: 26 hospitals and 33 outpatient health care providers. The total number of day care beds was 509 – 343 in hospitals and 166 in outpatient health care providers. Compared to 2017, the number of day care beds decreased by 18%. Last year 8,328 children and 80,828 adults were in day care. Compared to 2017, the number of children (0-14 years) decreased by 3.4%, but the number of adults increased by 7.5%.
In 2018, 13% of hospital patients were children, 45% of those aged 15-64 and 42% of those aged 65 and over. The age distribution was the same as in the previous year, but over the last decade the proportion of patients aged 65 and over has increased by 8%. The main causes of hospital care are, as in the past, diseases of the circulatory system, with three-quarters of patients aged 65 and over. Children accounted for 9% of day care patients in 2018, 58% of those aged 15-64 and 32% of those aged 65 and over. The share of the older age group has increased by 4% compared to the previous year. The main cause of treatment was eye diseases.
Statistics about hospital and day care discharges and hospital beds in 2018 is published in Health Statistics and Health Research Database. Also, data about the hospitals that belong to the Hospital Network Development Plan (tables HH08, RV701, RV711) are available. Additionally, data has published about acute care hospital discharges by diagnosis, age group and patient's county according to Estonian e-health records.