Tervishoiusüsteem Harjumaal 1922–1926: töötajad, asutused, arstiabi kättesaadavus
Healthcare in Harju County during 1922–1926: Employees, Institutions, Access to Health Care

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this work is to study the state-supported health care system in Harju County during the years 1922–1926. This subject has not been studied extensively up until now and the article provides a clearer picture of quondam health service institutions in Harju County, the people working as medical staff and whether medical care was available to people living in rural areas. The focus is on the rural areas of Harju County, and the national health care system as relatively unexplored domains. Therefore, most of the information here is obtained from the Tallinn City Archive. The article does not concern folk medicine, although this was probably used most often. Folk medicine needs separate research and the current one is groundwork for this: it helps to understand why, in the 1920’s, people preferred folk medicine to state-financed medicine. As a result of the research I found out that poor access to health care was one of the main reasons why ethno-medical treatment was preferred. In some parts of the region there were no doctors and medical care was very expensive. In the rural areas of Harju County, there were no hospitals and people could only use the ones in Tallinn. In addition to the fact that it was difficult to travel to Tallinn, hospital treatment was very expensive. After a stay in hospital, many people accrued serious debt. Rural medical practice doctors had many different tasks which made it difficult for people to access health care. People from Harju County often did not want to go to the doctor because they did not trust medical staff – on several occasions medical personnel took too much money from patients. However, we can say that in the second half of the 1920’s the situation started to improve: in 1925, there was at least one doctor in every rural medical practice. People in Harju County often visited a pharmacist before going to the doctor, and sometimes this led to conflict, because pharmacists sold prescription drugs without permission and thus did the work of the doctors. Likewise, pharmacists sometimes asked a higher price for drugs than allowed, which made it difficult for poor people to access medicines, and again it caused conflict between pharmacists and doctors.

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