Ogre hospital cuts weekday gynaecologist access under reform

Ogre Hospital will have reduced weekday access to a gynaecologist after a cut in state funding under Latvia’s hospital reform, LSM reported, citing Zemgale Regional Television.

The reform will replace the existing five-level hospital classification with a three-level system and redirect some state funding from inpatient care to outpatient services. Hospital managers have warned that the changes could affect access to medical services.

Dainis Širovs, chairman of the board of Ogre Hospital, said the facility had already faced a reduction of more than 500,000 euros in inpatient care funding at the start of the year. Under the new plan, as a regional hospital, it will lose a further 130,000 euros from the funding for its admissions department.

As a result, the hospital will no longer provide a gynaecologist at full capacity on weekdays. Širovs said that between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., patients needing the specialist would have to travel to Riga because a gynaecologist would no longer be available in Ogre during those hours.

The Latvian Association of Hospitals warned that similar problems could affect other hospitals. It said Daugavpils Regional Hospital faced a funding reduction of 1.378 million euros, Jelgava City Hospital 960,000 euros and Alūksne Hospital 497,000 euros.

The hospitals’ main concern, the association said, was that inpatient funding would fall while the flow of patients would not decrease. At the same time, the number of outpatient patients could increase because additional funding would be directed to outpatient services.

The Ministry of Health has stressed that emergency care will remain available at all hospitals and said the reform would improve access to healthcare.