Clinics warn of uncertainty over state-funded eye care in 2027

Patients and healthcare providers are concerned about access to state-funded planned eye operations and other ophthalmology services in 2027, Latvian public broadcaster LSM reported.

The Ophthalmology Clinic at Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, one of Latvia’s leading eye-care institutions, performs about 10,000 state-funded operations each year. It is not currently accepting bookings for planned operations in 2027. Its existing contract to provide services expires on December 31, and doctors say they do not yet know how many consultations and treatments they will be able to offer next year.

Clinic head Guna Laganovska said the preliminary figures allocated for consultations were far below recent demand. The clinic provided state-funded consultations to about 10,000 patients in 2024 and 2025, she said, while the new figure it had received was 3,000.

The National Health Service said the university hospitals had been reserved a guaranteed volume of services outside the provider selection process. Hospitals that had capacity could also apply for extra services, and the 3,000 consultations allocated to Stradins were on top of its guaranteed volume, said Linda Celmina-Keze, head of the service development unit in the agency’s treatment services department. She described the situation with Stradins as likely a communication error.

Clinic specialists fear that if the number of outpatient consultations were to fall threefold, many patients would have to pay for appointments themselves. A consultation costs between 60 and 100 euros, Laganovska said, adding that this could be difficult for patients with serious conditions who have traditionally sought care at university clinics. Patients who first see a specialist as a paying patient are not entitled to state-reimbursed medicines, the article said.

Tags: health, Latvia, healthcare