The dispute is over health certificates issued by general practitioners to the disabled, which are used to get various benefits. The family doctors have said they plan to stop issuing them on August 1, saying that the information already exists in the online health information system.
The problem is that the social welfare agencies that administer the benefits do not yet have the privileges to access the information.
"We are offering a solution where if the data are in the information system, they are pulled from there, and if they are not, then we ask the family doctors for them," said Pevkur.
But only slightly over half of the family doctors have joined the e-health database, meaning that many doctors will have to do the paperwork.
Pevkur ventured that resistance to information technology may be one reason that more are not using the system.
Estonian Family Doctors Association board member Anneli Kalle-Talvik said family doctors weren't shirking their duty out of spite, arguing that the e-health database could be better.
"If the system is not functional enough for all of the data of a day's work to be sent in one click, then that means the system is not really fit for use for its users, the family doctors," said Talvik.
Pevkur has promised that new IT solutions are on the way. Estonia will play a major role in developing the pan-European system contemplated by the EU, and the new-and-improved domestic online health care system will be up and running by October so that health certificates can be printed out in a single click.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kristopher Rikken
Quelle/Source: ERR News, 25.07.2011
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