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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 09:52

Medics to stage protest in front of Saeima on November 7

BC, Riga, 29.10.2019.Print version
To protest against insufficient funding and excessive workload, medics will stage a meeting-picket in front of Saeima on November 7, Karlis Racenis, board chairman of the Latvian Junior Doctors Association told LETA.

All medics, except providers of emergency medical services, have been invited to join the protest. The medics are asked to take an unpaid day off from work to participate in the picket. In Racenis' words, the largest hospitals in Riga and Latvia's regions have expressed their support for the protest. 

If the medics' efforts to secure the necessary funding for the health sector fail, they will hold a protest action called Lower the Flag, Light a Candle across Latvia from November 8 to 14. Flags on all health care institutions will be lowered and candles lit during the event. 

If Saeima on November 14 passes next year's budget without increasing financing for health care, a petition will be started on a dissolution of Saeima, said Valdis Keris, chairman of the Latvian Trade Union of Health and Social Care Employees (LVSADA), adding that signatures under the petition would be collected electronically.

As reported, in protest against the projected healthcare financing amounts in the next few years, healthcare workers will stage a protest, called A Day without a Doctor, urging all physicians, except those working in emergency medical service, to take one-day unpaid leave before Saeima's vote on the 2020 state budget bill, as the Latvian Medical Association's President Ilze Aizsilniece informed LETA.

According to Latvia's medium-term budget framework for 2020, 2021 and 2022, Latvia will spend only 3.3% of GDP on health care. This year, by comparison, the health budget reaches 3.9%  of GDP, and the average health budget of European Union member states is 7% of GDP. Both Lithuania and Estonia spend more than 5% of GDP on health care.






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