Speaking at the presentation of the Foresight Center's report on the sustainability of healthcare on Wednesday, Koppel said healthcare expenditures have tripled over the past 15 years and doubled compared with 10 years ago.

More than 50 percent of this increase in costs has come from salary raises for healthcare workers."This is not a bad thing in itself, we are coming from a relatively low level," Koppel said.

Speaking on Vikerraadio's "Uudis+" program, he explained that while doctors' and nurses' salaries used to be quite low, but Estonia has now reached a point where the average is in line with the EU average.

"This rather suggests that the rapid wage growth we've seen in recent years likely will not continue at the same pace," Koppel noted.

He added that wage increases have reduced the emigration of healthcare workers tenfold: in 2012, around 400 doctors and nurses left Estonia each year, but now the number is around 40.

Despite this, the healthcare sector still lacks workers, and the incentives to attract people to the field are strong, Koppel said. The loss of doctors and nurses has steadily decreased.

"Some naturally leave the field. We see overload, especially among healthcare workers in the public sector. Burnout and overtime have indeed become real issues. True, it leads to higher wages, but it can also be a bit off-putting," the expert said.

Koppel added that generational differences may also play a role, as younger people are no longer willing to work the kind of overloaded schedules that used to be common.

"The fact is that there is a shortage of healthcare workers in every European country. Twenty countries lack doctors, 19 lack nurses, and the shortage is growing. The question is how we compensate for this shortfall. We can train quite a few, but training volumes alone won't meet the demand, so we need smart ways to find additional funding," Koppel said.

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