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As regards the pay rise, 50% of respondents said their salaries had increased this year but comparatively few physicians (less than 11%) saw any noticeable rise (by more than 10%) in their salaries.

The survey showed that 29% of the respondents have neutral attitude to the health care reform while 27% have a negative opinion about the changes and just 15% share a positive opinion about the reform. Many physicians even were not aware of the reform.

The survey revealed that the opinions of physicians about the health care reform, the pay rise and use of the large additional allocations for health care vary greatly depending on the age group and medical specialty. Other findings include growing red tape in health care, less time specifically for communication with the patient and a trend among the physicians to have more than one job.

The Latvian Medical Association will provide more detailed information about the survey conducted among 2,944 physicians at a news conference on June 5.

As reported, the financing to health care has reached EUR 1.014 billion this year, and the EUR 194 million increase is the largest health care budget increase in Latvia since the country regained independence in the early 1990s. Nearly a half of the additional financing is to be used to increase salaries to the medical staff.