Lithuania plans one-stop system for long-term care

Lithuania’s Ministry of Social Security and Labour and Ministry of Health are preparing a draft law that would provide long-term care services through a unified one-stop system, LRT reports.

Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė said the planned changes would create a personalised system of social and healthcare services that responds to the needs of people requiring care and their relatives while avoiding duplication.

“People should not have to worry about which institution is responsible for their nursing and which is responsible for social assistance. They should simply receive one service through a unified support system,” Ruginienė said at a news conference on Wednesday.

She said the one-stop principle would simplify applications, assessments and access to services, while reducing the administrative burden on staff and allowing them to spend more time providing assistance.

Nearly 54,000 people used long-term care services last year, according to the minister. She said the system needed to be adapted as Lithuania and Europe face an ageing population and demand for such services grows.

Needs would be assessed once

Health Minister Linas Kukuraitis said efforts to combine nursing and care services into a unified system had been under way for more than a decade. He said the government had now agreed on the key issues and planned to submit a package on the long-term care system to the Seimas in autumn.

One of the most important planned changes would be a single assessment of a person’s needs. The assessment would determine both the person’s needs and the package of services required, whether at home, through day care or in an inpatient facility.

Kukuraitis said neither social nor healthcare services would be reduced by combining the systems. Palliative nursing would remain part of the healthcare system, while some long-term treatment and nursing services would be transferred to the long-term care system.

He also said the main sources of funding for long-term care would be funds from Lithuania’s Compulsory Health Insurance Fund.