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Proportion of residents with unmet healthcare needs in Latvia highest in EU

BC, Riga, 09.03.2015.Print version
The proportion of residents with unmet healthcare needs in Latvia is the highest in the European Union, about three times above the EU average indicator, according to the European Commission's latest report on the economic development and implementation of the EU recommendations in Latvia, informs LETA.

According to the report, approximately 20% of Latvia's residents have unmet healthcare needs, while the average figure for the EU is under 7%. The main reasons for this include high healthcare costs, long waiting lines for specialist consultation visits, and there are shortages of healthcare access regionally.

 

The Commission's report indicates that the main problems in Latvia's healthcare include high patient co-payments and low healthcare spending per capita – among the lowest across the EU. At the same time, comparatively small part of healthcare spending goes to health promotion and prevention of diseases.

 

Additional funds were made available in 2014 to improve the accessibility of healthcare services, but this is unlikely to translate into significant improvements. The additional financing was used to slightly lower patient co-payments, reduce waiting times for specialist consultation visits, finance additional oncology diagnostics and laboratory examinations, and increase salaries of the lowest paid healthcare personnel.

 

However, the Commission notes that healthcare access for vulnerable groups remains restricted, and primary care and referral systems are not sufficiently strong. Furthermore, waiting times for specialist consultations and cancer diagnostics are relatively high, and there is a lack of sickness prevention and health promotion.

 

According to the Commission's data, access to healthcare in Austria, Netherlands and Slovenia is the best in the EU. Besides Latvia, access to healthcare in Poland and Sweden is also comparatively restricted.






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