WHO mission to Estonia assists in drafting of new Public Health Act
Estonia is currently drafting new comprehensive public health legislation and is therefore revising the current institutional arrangements through which the essential public health operations (EPHOs) are delivered on county and municipality levels.
At the request of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), a group of WHO experts and external experts from Norway and Finland visited Estonia on 18–20 June to participate in an expert workshop on revising the Estonian Public Health Act. The invited experts also interviewed key Estonian public health actors from all levels of government and reviewed a concept note produced by the Public Health Department of MoSA.
The objectives of the mission were:
- to review experiences and lessons learned from other European countries on decentralized delivery of EPHOs through the implementation of public health law;
- to discuss policy options for decentralized delivery of EPHOs in Estonia;
- to provide feedback and recommendations on the responsibilities and EPHOs at regional and municipal levels based on the proposals in the draft concept note of the revised Public Health Act as well as on the interviews conducted during the mission and discussions at the workshop.
