Latvia’s healthcare system needs more funding to tackle persistent problems

Latvia’s healthcare sector still faces long waits for specialists, expensive medicines, an unfinished hospital reform and limited access to healthcare services for children in rural regions, LSM reported. Dissatisfied with pay, the medical workers’ trade union has decided to hold a protest and demand the health minister’s resignation.

Cheaper medicines

Although some decisions have been made, reforms in the sector overseen by the New Unity party during recent governments have progressed slowly.

Raising medical workers’ pay was one of the key issues on the agenda of the government led by Krišjānis Kariņš of New Unity. Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri, who served in the government led by his successor, Evika Siliņa, pledged soon after taking office to reduce medicine prices.

“The price of medicines should be the same as in Lithuania and Estonia. Medicines are more expensive in Latvia, some by 30, 40 and even 50 percent,” Abu Meri said at the time.

As a result, the reimbursement rate was raised to 75 percent for medicines previously covered at 50 percent. New medicines and additional diagnoses were also added to the list of reimbursable medicines. For patients whose medicines are reimbursed on an individual basis, the reimbursement limit was doubled to 30,000 euros.

However, these measures have not fully resolved the problem of expensive medicines. Reimbursement for patients with rare diseases also remains unresolved because the Rare Disease Register is incomplete. A decision to cover medicine costs in individual cases, following a recommendation from a council of doctors at three university hospitals to save a patient’s life, has also not solved the problem entirely.

Long waits for specialists

Waiting lists for specialists also remain unresolved. For example, patients may have to wait a year or longer to see a paediatric dentist, TV Kurzeme reported, citing Liepāja Centre Dentistry.

“It is true that people often have to wait a year, and possibly even longer. For children, we consistently have a one-year wait for state-funded services. Several years ago, the wait was two years or even longer,” a dentist said.