page_title: Valga County
section_title: Health and welfare
hierarchical_section_title: Valga County / Health and welfare
caption_attribution_description: English: Valga, Estonia|Valga hospital, Estonia.
context_page_description: Valga County, or Valgamaa is a first-level administrative unit and one of 15 counties of Estonia. It comprises the former area of Valga District. The present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. The capital and largest town of Valga County is Valga, followed by Tõrva and Otepää. It is situated in the southern part of the country and borders Põlva and Võru County to the east, Latvia to the south and west, and Viljandi and Tartu County to the north. 29,944 people live in Valga County.
context_section_description: Stationary health care in Valga County is provided by AS Valga Haigla, SA Otepää Tervisekeskus and SA Tõrva Haigla. SA Otepää Tervisekeskus and SA Tõrva Haigla are meant for nursing care, SA Valga Haigla also offers medical specialist help in addition to nursing care. Different out-patient specialist services are being offered in all three institutions. To provide general medical help for citizens of the county, there are 17 practice lists with 15 family physicians (GP-s), 2 replacement physicians, 2 helping physicians and 19 family nurses. Family physician Merike Ausmees has the longest practice list of 2,500 patients, serving the areas of Tõrva Town, Helme and Põdrala Parish. There are 6 practice lists with more than 2,000 patients. Tõlliste and Õru Parish have the shortest list of 681 patients. By the end of 2013 health care was arranged by the County Governor but due to the changes in Health Care Law the competence has been forwarded to the Health Board as of 01.01.2013.
  There are 13 institutions offering welfare services in Valga County. Hellenurme Manor is the biggest institution with 390 bed seats. Four institutions are registered as non-profit organizations, two as joint-stock companies and one as a limited-liability company. The rest is being maintained without corporate bodies. As of 2014, welfare services can be offered to 981 people, 818 bed seats have been occupied. 27 social workers and 294 social service providers offer services at clients` homes.
  There are 69 manors and castles in Valga County. Sangaste Castle and Taagepera Castle (Estonian best wedding place 2007-2013) are the most popular ones. The most well-known and most visited tourism magnet is Otepää which also bears the title of Winter Capital each year from 21 December to 20 March, since 1996. The area of Otepää is known as one of the various all-in-one places where training camps and winter sports events are being held. When comparing accommodation services by Estonian counties, Valga County is holding the fourth position (after Harju County, Saaremaa and Pärnu County). As of 2013 there were 77 rooming houses, having altogether 826 rooms and 2,149 beds (data from subjects to statistics only).
caption: Main building of Valga hospital
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