The Public Conciliator has terminated the conciliation procedure with the Estonian Medical Association, the Estonian Nurses' Association, the Estonian Union of Healthcare Professionals, the Estonian Hospitals Association, the Estonian Ambulance Association as well as the Estonian Association of Family Doctors, it stands in the decision.

"This means that the parties are now free in their actions," acting public conciliator Henn Pärn told BNS. He said it would be good if the parties reached an agreement on their own.

According to the Public Conciliator, the basis for an agreement exists, and if no agreement can be reached between the involved parties they will have the opportunity to turn to the conciliator once more. "But this round is over," said Pärn.

He described it as regrettable that although the parties had reached an agreement on minimum wage that would have ensured a 20-percent hike in pay for carers and nurses and a ten-percent pay increase for doctors within a period of two years, no collective agreement was ultimately signed.

Healthcare workers won't sign without commitment to improved medical care access

Estonian healthcare workers have rejected the collective agreement offer made by Estonia's Public Conciliator, saying that they will only agree to sign a collective agreement if politicians take on concrete obligations for improving access to medical care.

The Estonian Medical Association, the Estonian Union of Healthcare Professionals and the Estonian Nurses' Association said in a joint statement earlier this week that in the past five years, the volume of specialized care has consistently been reduced and this year, hospital care receives 18 percent or 35,000 patients less than in 2013. "This year's budget of the Health Insurance Fund is €70 million smaller than needed," the statement highlighted. "The prices of several medical services have been cut under the labels of systemization and modernization to an extent that, according to professional associations, these do not cover real costs and do not allow for the provision of quality medical care."

The Estonian Hospitals Association also rejected the collective agreement offer made by the public conciliator on Tuesday, citing that the funding of the healthcare sector is not sufficient.

According to Minister of Health and Labour Jevgeni Ossinovski, the demands of healthcare workers which require decisions to be made on the government level were inappropriate in the context of wage talks as the core of collective agreement talks is to reach an agreement on the salaries and working conditions of medical personnel.