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Latvian family practitioners: quotas for health care services are being exceeded every year

BC, Riga, 09.10.2015.Print version
About half of all family practitioners in Latvia every year are exceeding quotas for various health care services because the number of quotas does not fit with the reality of the situation, as LETA was informed by Pauls Princis, a board member of the Latvian Family Doctors' Association.

Princis said that Health Minister Guntis Belevics' (Greens/Farmers) announcement that family practitioners must strictly comply with the quota system will affect the patients. He believes that the number of quotas is too small.

 

"The state ignores this in order to save money. We believe that such a quota system is illegal, as the Cabinet of Ministers is not the only entity that regulates healthcare." Princis said that these rules are only a matter of formality, as "year after year, we are exhausting the quotas, while the state admits that family practitioners are doing the right thing." This is not the first year when such situations arise, he added.

 

Princis pointed out that family doctors are trying to follow the quota system, however, patients always remain a priority. "Doctors have the right to act and dispatch something in excess, even if they believe it is the right thing. A doctor's priority always is the patient, not quotas," said the Princis.






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