Abstract

The accessibility of speech therapy has not been studied in Estonia. The aim of this study was to describe the resources, regional differences, and temporal trends of speech therapy services provided in the Estonian healthcare system from 2010 to 2022.
This study was based on the retrospective data obtained from Tervisekassa (the Estonian Health Insurance Fond). All speech therapy services financed by Tervisekassa were included and analysed.
The total provided speech therapy treatment increased slightly due to outpatient services at the beginning of the observation period. Since 2014, the amount of therapy hours saw a downward trend, reaching its 2021 levels in 2022. After 2014, service delivery reached its lowest level in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Speech therapy treatment is unevenly available regionally. Insufficient availability forces people to seek speech pathology services far from their homes.
This study is the first to give a detailed overview of the provision of speech therapy treatment in the Estonian healthcare system, providing evidence-based input for the design of healthcare policy. The research results indicate that it would be necessary to harmonize the regional availability of speech pathology services. Further studies are needed to evaluate the availability of treatment for all patient populations.