Emergency Medical Service budget to shrink by EUR 1.6 million next year; service continues restructuring

RIGA - The budget of the Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) for the next year foresees a EUR 1.6 million cut in spending, and for this and other reasons the service will make changes to the organization of its work, for example, it is planned to reduce the number of night-time teams and introduce a new principle of hospitalization, the service informed LETA.

This year, the NMPD has a budget of EUR 119 million, of which 90 percent is for remuneration, 8 percent are paid for goods and services and 2 percent for capital expenditure.

NMPD Director Liene Cipule pointed out that although investment in development is currently lacking, there is still room to improve efficiency in the service.

Systemic changes in the health sector also justify changes in the organization of work in the NMPD. The Health Ministry intends to organize the transfer of patients to emergency hospitals by introducing a new principle of hospitalization - to take patients primarily to the nearest hospital, the NMPD said.

"This will mean our teams will have to travel shorter distances with patients to hospitals and may enable the service to remain responsive with fewer resources," Cipule said.

Changes to the organization of brigade work will be assessed against a range of criteria, including the territorial coverage of the brigade network, the number of brigades per population, demographic data, population density in areas and internal movement within the country, call intensity at different times of the day, as well as the hospital network and other factors.

Currently, Latvia has one brigade for an average of 9,500 inhabitants, while Lithuania and Estonia have one brigade for 13,000 to 18,000 inhabitants.

In many parts of Europe, too, this figure is much higher than in Latvia, with standards set according to population density in different areas.

Latvia's dramatically different population densities in different areas also lead to uneven provision of brigades: in some places, one brigade is provided for an average of 6,000 inhabitants, while in others there are up to 20,000 inhabitants per brigade.

Revising the composition of brigades is also an important area of efficiency. Since 2018, the NMPD has been building brigades of different composition and qualifications, gradually creating new brigades or replacing the usual three-person brigades with two-person brigades, similar to how they operate in other European countries.

Another important efficiency criterion is the provision of crews day and night according to the intensity of calls - as the number of calls drops significantly during night hours, fewer crews are needed at this time, as 80 percent of calls are made during the day and only 20 percent at night.

So far, the NMPD has gradually reduced the number of teams during night hours and increased the number during the day, without affecting the overall responsiveness and efficiency of the NMPD.

The NMPD provides emergency medical assistance to the population in critical health and life situations, plans the disaster medical system in the country, methodically manages and organizes first aid training in the country, and keeps a national material reserve of medical equipment and medicines.