Lithuanian Seimas okays renewed agreement with Latvia on emergency medical services

VILNIUS - The Seimas of Lithuania has approved a renewed agreement between Lithuania and Latvia on emergency medical services in the border area.

The parliament voted unanimously in favor of the agreements last week.

The health ministers of the two neighboring countries signed the renewed agreement in July.

With the agreement ratified, the ambulance services of both countries will conclude a supplementary agreement setting out the exact procedures for requesting and providing assistance, as well as the procedures for registering and forwarding calls received from the border area.

The agreement stipulates that the Latvian and Lithuanian ambulance services will cooperate by sharing knowledge, information, human resources and technical support to provide medical assistance to the border population in the event of mass disasters.

Lithuania and Latvia concluded the original agreement back in 2018.

Former Health Minister Aurimas Peckauskas has said that, to his knowledge, there have been no cases of Lithuanian ambulances having to travel to Latvia since 2018.

According to the Lithuanian Health Ministry, the need to renew the agreement with Latvia arose after last year's reorganization of the ambulance system.