State Audit Office says child healthcare remains a paper priority in Latvia

Child healthcare is legally defined as a priority in Latvia, but the country has not created a system to ensure that priority in practice, the State Audit Office concluded in an audit, LSM reported.

The state has not determined which outpatient healthcare services must be available in different parts of Latvia. Funding is planned without adequately checking whether healthcare providers can actually accept children, while information about service availability does not always match reality.

As a result, children’s access to medical care varies across Latvia, and faster access often depends on their parents’ ability to pay. In the regions, gaps in state-funded services are partly filled by charity financed through donations.

In 2024, the state spent 93 million euros on outpatient healthcare for children, while families paid at least another 14.5 million euros for private healthcare services. However, access to services was not ensured equally, quickly enough or in sufficient volume.

An assessment of five state-funded children’s programmes in the regions found that healthcare providers did not actually accept children in 71% of cases, despite the services being planned and funded.

Some 69% of children’s doctors work in Riga, and one in four children living outside the capital receives state-funded secondary outpatient healthcare in Riga. The sector also lacks a common understanding of which doctors can treat children and to what extent, while paediatricians are not sufficiently involved in outpatient care.

“A child in Latvia is a priority patient, but the audit shows that this priority has largely remained on paper,” said Maija Āboliņa, a member of the State Audit Office Council. “If it has not been decided where and which services must be available, and who will provide them, we cannot speak of equality. At present, too much depends on a child’s place of residence and the family’s ability to find a solution on its own.”

According to the audit, children’s services are planned in a fragmented way, without sufficient information about needs and the available medical staff.