Health Ministry’s deputy state secretary appointed head of Riga Eastern Hospital

RIGA - Latvian Health Ministry’s deputy state secretary Egita Pole has been appointed the board chairwoman of the Riga Eastern University Hospital, the hospital’s representative Aija Lietina reported.

In order to ensure capability of the hospital’s board, the extraordinary shareholders meeting on Thursday decided to appoint Pole the board chairwoman of the hospital.

"Health Minister Anda Caksa is ready to take active part and help the hospital to solve its problems. My goal is to ensure smooth operation of the hospital. The board is working for medics and medics are working for patients," said Pole during her meeting with the staff on Friday morning.

She said that the health minister wants to achieve the average wages of doctor to reach EUR 1,700 a month, wages of nurses to reach 60 percent of that amount, and wages of lower staff to reach 40 percent.

During the meeting with heads of structural units, Pole asked them to prepare proposals on how to make work of administration more efficient.

As reported, Riga Eastern University Hospital’s board chairperson Anita Slokenberga and board member Viesturs Boka stood down on Thursday. Their resignation came a day after the State Audit Office sent the Health Ministry its findings about the hospital administration’s performance, which are said to be rather damning.

The inefficient work and careless decisions of Riga Eastern Hospital’s administration have brought about losses worth several millions of euro, which has seriously affected the hospital’s finances, the Health Ministry reported.