TempoLife › Features › Defibrillators and cardiac arrest response › estonia
Estonia: 112, kiirabi and no national AED register
One number for everything, a dispatch centre that coaches CPR down the phone, and defibrillators scattered by municipalities, employers and shops with no single public list. What that means if you are the one calling.
CPR in sixty seconds
- Unresponsive and not breathing normally? Gasping is not breathing. Treat it as a cardiac arrest.
- Call 112 (113 in Norway). Speaker on, phone on the floor. Stay on the line — the dispatcher will coach you.
- Push hard and fast in the centre of the chest: 5–6 cm in an adult, 100–120 per minute, letting the chest come all the way back up.
- Send somebody else for a defibrillator. Do not go yourself unless it is seconds away. Keep compressing.
- Turn the device on and do what it says. It decides whether to shock. After a shock, go straight back to compressions.
This is a reference written for bystanders, not a diagnosis, a training course or medical advice. It cannot tell you what is wrong with a particular person, and it does not replace the dispatcher on the other end of an emergency call — they can see what is near you and they will talk you through it. If you are worried about your own heart, or about a symptom, that is a conversation with a clinician rather than a page on a website.
One number, one centre
Estonia runs a single emergency number for ambulance, rescue and police. Calls to 112 are answered by Häirekeskus, the Emergency Response Centre under the Ministry of the Interior, which dispatches ambulance brigades, the Rescue Board and the police from the same desk. The dispatcher stays on the line and will coach chest compressions; the ambulance service itself is organised by the Health Board, which contracts the brigades that cover each area. Estonia has invested unusually heavily in caller location, which is one less thing to worry about in a city — and still no help at all on a forest track, where reading coordinates aloud is the fastest route to a correct address.
Devices exist; a list of them does not
There is no single public national register of defibrillators in Estonia. Devices have been installed piecemeal and well: by municipalities on the walls of community centres and town halls, by hospitals in their own foyers, by shopping centres, gyms, employers, sports clubs and some pharmacies. Individual towns and hospitals publish local lists, and suppliers keep their own customer maps. None of that adds up to a national database that a dispatcher or a stranger can query, and that gap is the single biggest structural difference between Estonia and its Nordic neighbours.
What to do about it as an owner
If you own or manage a device, tell your local ambulance provider and your municipality where it is, in words a stranger could follow — building, entrance, floor, cabinet, opening hours, access code. Then add it to OpenStreetMap as an emergency=defibrillator node, because that is the one place the information becomes openly usable by every map and app, permanently, and correctable by anyone who finds the cabinet has moved. Put a green AED sign on the box and directional signs at the entrance; a device nobody can find is a device nobody uses.
Training, and the driving licence
Estonia has one quietly effective piece of policy: first-aid training is part of the driving-licence process, which means a large share of the adult population has at some point been taught chest compressions. Refreshing it is another matter. The Estonian Red Cross runs public first-aid courses, as do the Rescue Board's prevention programmes, commercial providers and employers meeting their occupational health and safety obligations. A three-to-four-hour basic life support course is the useful unit, and repeating a short version yearly beats a certificate from a decade ago.
If you are the one standing there
Call 112 immediately and put the phone on speaker on the floor. Say where you are first and, if you are outside a built-up area, read your coordinates aloud. Start compressions and keep going. Ask the dispatcher whether there is a defibrillator nearby — they can often tell you, and in a shopping centre, station, gym or public building the answer is frequently yes. Send somebody else to fetch it; do not go yourself unless it is within a few seconds' reach.
| Item | How it works |
|---|---|
| Emergency number | 112 — ambulance, rescue and police |
| Call centre | Häirekeskus (Ministry of the Interior) |
| Ambulance service | Kiirabi brigades contracted through the Health Board (Terviseamet) |
| Dispatcher CPR coaching | Yes — stay on the line |
| National AED register | No single public register |
| Volunteer responder scheme | No nationwide public scheme |
| Open map layer | OpenStreetMap, emergency=defibrillator |
| Training | Estonian Red Cross, Rescue Board programmes, commercial providers; first aid is part of the driving-licence process |
Sources: Häirekeskus (112 Estonia) · Terviseamet (Estonian Health Board) · Päästeamet (Estonian Rescue Board) · Estonian Red Cross (Eesti Punane Rist) · OpenStreetMap tag emergency=defibrillator · checked 2026-09-08
Frequently asked questions
Is there a map of defibrillators in Estonia?
Not a single official national one. Some towns and hospitals publish local lists and suppliers keep customer maps, and OpenStreetMap carries an openly licensed layer with uneven coverage. In an emergency, call 112 and ask.
Which number do I call?
112, for ambulance, rescue and police alike. The dispatcher will coach you through chest compressions if you stay on the line, so put the phone on speaker and keep it beside you.
I have a defibrillator at my premises. Who should know?
Your municipality and your local ambulance provider, in precise words including floor, access and opening hours. Add it to OpenStreetMap as well so the information is openly usable and correctable.
Country by country
Finland: defi.fi and the 112 Suomi app
The best-organised defibrillator register in the Baltic Sea region: a national database run by the heart association with the resuscitation council and the Red Cross, feeding device locations to the emergency services app.
Latvia: NMPD, 112 and a patchwork of devices
The state emergency medical service answers the medical side of 112 and publishes guidance for defibrillator owners, but there is no single public register. Where devices have actually appeared, and what to do with yours.
Lithuania: a legal requirement and a service database
The one country in the region where the law names the venues that must have a defibrillator. How the 112 centre and the emergency medical service work together, and how the device database reaches the dispatcher.
Sweden: a register, a research base and SMS lifesavers
A national defibrillator register run by the resuscitation council, a quality register that has published cardiac-arrest outcomes for decades, and a volunteer scheme that grew out of the research.
Norway: 113, NAKOS and the register that is free
The medical emergency number is 113, not 112. The national defibrillator register is run by a state competence centre and costs nothing — which matters, because commercial look-alikes have been invoicing device owners.
Everything on this subject
Before the emergency, there is a long quiet stretch
Blood pressure, resting heart rate, movement and sleep are the part of this you can act on for years beforehand. TempoLife keeps them in one place, free to start.