LVSADA, in an open letter on August 20 of this year, called to ensure that the additional 153.27 million euros requested by the Ministry of Health (MOH) are allocated in the 2025 budget for the provision of critically important health care functions. What are the critical areas where you believe funding is lacking and needs to be directed?
The most important, most critical area in the view of our trade union is the lack of human resources in Latvian state health care. And this is not only our opinion, but also that of the OECD and the European Commission (EC). In their latest reviews of Latvia, both of these organizations have emphasized that the lack of human resources in health care is one of the main causes of poor access to services, low life expectancy and high preventable mortality. On the other hand, the reason why it is so bad with human resources in health care in the public sector is unreasonably low wages. It’s like a cross-cutting theme for all areas of healthcare – both oncology and cardiovascular care – the list goes on and on. Without a sufficient number of qualified specialists, no technology will work. And that is why it is so important to make sure that public health care wages are as competitive as possible.
Namely, so that our specialists – doctors, nurses and other medical workers – do not simply leave for work in countries where they can receive adequate wages due to insufficient pay.
Exactly. Such an argument is often used here – there are doctors who receive many thousands, so why should something else be raised? This is a completely wrong argument from a systemic point of view, because it could just as well be said that our ministers and members of the Saeima receive good salaries, so why should the minimum wage be raised in the country. No one thinks and acts like that.
Read the newspapers throughout the conversation Day in the issue of Tuesday, September 24! If you want to continue reading the newspaper in printed form, you can subscribe to it+
2024-09-24 10:43:38