Crisis, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Medicine
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Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:41
90 mln euros needed to prevent healthcare system from collapsing in Latvia – Keris
Valdis Keris. BC. |
The letter that Keris, on behalf of the Union of Health and Social Care
Employees, has sent to President Raimonds Vejonis and Saeima Chairwoman Inara
Murniece (National Alliance),
asks the officials to "take prompt action in order to prevent Latvian
state healthcare system from collapsing."
Keris emphasizes that the state of emergency, caused by multiple
Emergency Medical Service employees quitting their jobs, clearly proves that
healthcare employees have little faith in the government. The crisis has been
caused by the current government's refusal to include financing, necessary for
increasing healthcare workers' salaries and overtime pay, in documents that
will be used in structuring next year's state budget.
"In doing so, the government has shown that it ignores the
Healthcare Financing Law and the Labor Law, recommendations issued by the
European Commission and the World Health Organizations, the government's own
promises to social partners, and the acute labor shortage in healthcare,"
Keris emphasizes.
He also points out that labor shortages in healthcare have already caused
grave consequences. According to Eurostat
data, each day Latvia loses 17 lives that medics would have been able to save
in normal, European-level conditions. The European Commission and the World
Bank have concluded that one of the main causes of the current problems is
labor shortages in Latvia's healthcare that, in turn, have been caused by low
wages. Physicians and nurses' wages in Latvia are the lowest in the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.
"It is therefore clear why the government's irresponsible decision
not to plan for a fair increase in salaries in healthcare next year has led to
multiple resignations, and the process may now snowball out of control. In
order to avert this, prompt action is necessary: there have to be firm
political guarantees that the additional funds necessary to increase healthcare
workers' salaries and cover overtime pay (around 90 mln euros) will be
earmarked in next year's budget," emphasizes Keris.
As reported, the Emergency Medical Service has decided to declare a state
of medical emergency in its Riga region center due to a rapid outflow of
medical staff.
The service’s director Liene Cipule told journalists on Friday
that the service was experiencing a “mass outflow of medics” who are
dissatisfied with excessive workload and meager wages, as well as an
uncertainty about their wages in 2019.
Earlier today, Health minister Anda Caksa (Greens/Farmers) said that the Health Ministry would urgently draft
amendments in order to expand the range of medics who can work at the Emergency
Medical Service.
While the overall level of healthcare workers' salaries has increased 30%,
salaries at the Emergency Medical Center have increased only 20%, Caksa also
said.