Government decides to merge 5 mental hospitals with National Mental Health Center

RIGA - The government on Tuesday approved a plan to merge five mental hospitals with the National Mental Health Center (NPVC), with the merger expected to be completed by October 30 this year.

According to the draft decree approved by the government, Daugavpils Psychoneurological Hospital, Strenci Psychoneurological Hospital, Piejuras Hospital, Gintermuiza Hospital and Ainazi Children's Psychoneurological Hospital will be merged with the NPVC. After the reorganization, the Health Ministry will be the holder of the state-owned shares in NPVC.

The Health Ministry indicates that currently state-funded mental health services are provided by several mutually independent companies with separate management, administrative and support functions. In the ministry's view, this model is fragmented, as strategic planning, staff management, administrative processes, procurement and information technology solutions are organized separately in each health facility.

This limits the possibilities to ensure a uniform approach to service planning and development at the national level and makes coordination and use of resources between the hospitals more difficult. At the same time, there are differences between hospitals in the availability of services, the range of specialized services and the medics' workload, which are affected by the availability of staff and the organization of patient flows, according to the Health Ministry.

The reorganization aims to reduce fragmentation of management, ensure more uniform access to and quality of services in Latvia's regions, and promote more efficient use of public financial and human resources. The provision of psychiatric services in the regions will continue as before, while the hospitals' management, administrative and support functions will be centralized in the NPVC. The mental hospitals will henceforth operate as regional units of the NPVC.

The Health Ministry underlines that there will be no reduction of services in the regions and no major changes in the content of services. The changes will mainly affect planning, coordination and quality assurance of services, creating a single management framework and strengthening the link between outpatient, day hospital and inpatient services.

The Health Ministry also indicates that no redundancies are planned in the merger process. Existing staff will be integrated into the NPVC structure and the rights and obligations of the employees will be taken over in a transition process, ensuring continuity of the employment relationship without termination of employment contracts.

In 2024, the merging medical institutions had a total of 3,152 employees. Of these, 370 were physicians, 765 were medical and patient care staff, 762 were support staff, 108 were administrative staff, and 1,147 were other staff.

The reorganization is to be implemented gradually, with regular information provided to staff.

There will be no reduction in funding for psychiatric services. After the merger, the National Health Service will continue to organize the planning, payment and monitoring of the publicly funded services, but under a single contract with the unified company.

Currently, hospitals use different information systems and IT solutions, which affect data availability, interoperability and process efficiency. The reorganization is expected to lead to a common approach to ICT management, including the gradual integration of information systems and the introduction of the Tvaiks 2.0 platform.

The Health Ministry believes that the introduction of a single information system will reduce IT infrastructure maintenance costs, provide a single patient database, faster and more accurate patient assessment, and allow for more efficient management of system development.