Health Protection

In old Estonia it was difficult for workers to pay for the services of doctors of whom there were only 1,000 in the entire republic. For every day in hospital a skilled worker had to pay as much as two to four days' wages.

There were only 5,100 hospital beds. Health expenditure comprised only 14 per cent of the budget.

With the establishment of Soviet power a free health service was intro duced. The number of doctors in the republic has almost trebled, while the number of hospital beds has increased by 120 per cent. A tenth of the budget is now earmarked for health expenditure.

Thanks to the better health service and higher material standards death rates have sharply fallen. In 1954-58 the number of deaths to every 1,000 of the population was between eleven and twelve, against the 1940 figure of eighteen.

In the coming seven years Estonia's health service will be further improved. The number of beds in hospitals, maternity homes and clinics is to be increased considerably. New big hospitals,with the most up-to-date medical equipment, will go up in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Narva and Iykhvi.

Estonia has many fine holiday resorts. Formerly the seaside resorts at Pärnu and Haapsalu were only within reach of the pockets of the rich.

Today workers and collective farmers spend their holidays there. In the coming seven years more health and holiday homes will be built in Estonia.

One big holiday home will be put up in the wonderful pine woods in Vyru-Kubä and another will go up on the shore of the Gulf of Finland at the health resort of Narv-Iyyesu. Existing sanatoria will be enlarged.

Estonian workers also spend their holidays and take treatment at health resorts in the other Soviet Republics. Last year, for instance, the local trade union at the Tallinn Volta factory provided sanatorium and holiday-home accommodation free of charge, or at a 70 per cent discount, to 153 workers. They went to Sochi, Yalta, Kislovodsk or Yessentuki, or to holiday homes in beauty spots in their own republic.

Every year thousands of Estonian workers and collective farmers go off for a holiday to Latvia, Lithuania, the Crimea or the Black Sea. Some go hiking in the Caucasus or elsewhere in the Soviet Union, while others take a tour abroad.

With material standards constantly improving, more and more people will be able to spend their holidays in this fashion.

Sports are very popular in Estonia. Many Estonian sportsmen have gained Soviet and world fame. Among them are the renowned chess player Paul Keres ex-world wrestling champion Johannes Kotkas, the girl swimmer Ulvi Voog and the track and field athlete Hubert Pärnakivi.

The government takes a great interest in sports, providing athletes with stadiums tennis courts the necessary training facilities, and so on Much will be done in the coming period to further develop sports and physical training.

"Estonia, Wonderful Present—Marvellous Future" was published by
Soviet Booklets, London, England, in December, 1959, as part of the series
"THE FIFTEEN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS OF TODAY AND TOMMORROW."
We do not endorse the Soviet account of historical events or their circumstances contained therein as factual.
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