Rural Latgale loses family doctors as practices close

Family doctor shortages and closing practices are a long-running problem in rural Latgale, where many doctors are nearing or have reached retirement age and young specialists rarely choose to work outside large cities, LSM reports. This year, a family doctor stopped seeing patients in Rudzāti, in Līvāni municipality, and a practice in Rožupe is due to close at the start of next year. In Špoģi, in Augšdaugava municipality, the local health centre will also lose its only two family doctors.

Two family doctors are registered at the Špoģi health centre, but neither is currently working there, and there will be no doctor on site from the new year. One doctor is on sick leave and will not return to work, while Dr Bicāns retired in August.

“Now it’s just the two of us here: me, the doctor’s assistant, and Valentīna, our nurse. We have 2,500 patients between us. How do you think we can manage? It’s difficult,” said assistant Tatjana Dmitrijeva. The nearest family doctor’s practice is in Daugavpils, meaning residents must travel tens of kilometres.

Some residents of Rudzāti and other parts of Līvāni municipality have been without a family doctor for almost six months, said assistant Ingrīda Zaķe, who has run a newly established feldsher point in Rudzāti since October. The doctor in Jersika has also stopped working, while Turki has had no doctor for a long time.

“Let’s be honest: nobody wants to work in the countryside,” Zaķe said. Residents are frustrated that they cannot get prescriptions and have difficulty reaching busy family doctor practices, she added.

Līvāni and Preiļi are the nearest places with other doctors’ practices, but residents say public transport makes it difficult to get there. One resident said a bus had been cancelled, leaving many people unable to reach Preiļi; those who do make the journey may face a long wait before they can return.

Tags: Latgale, healthcare, family doctors