"Mass outflow" of Emergency Medical Service staff has been stopped

RIGA – The "mass outflow" of Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) staff has been stopped, said Raita Krisjane, deputy head of the NMPD Riga regional center.

She said that there are still many vacancies in the service, but thanks to the government’s decision to allow medics work more overtime hours than provided by the Labor Law, the number of vacancies has been cut from 306 to 85.

NMPD director Liene Cipule said that in two months the composition of service brigades has improved, and the situation in Riga has stabilized. Therefore NMPD has decided to lift the state of medical emergency in its Riga regional center.

As reported, the Latvian Emergency Medical Service on November 9, 2018, decided to declare a state of medical emergency in its Riga region center due to a rapid outflow of medical staff. The service was experiencing a "mass outflow of medics" who are dissatisfied with excessive workload and meager wages, as well as an uncertainty about their wages in 2019.