Medical Association president concerned that without increasing financing for healthcare next year, people will be less motivated to work in sector

  • 2021-09-07
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Insufficient funding in next year's state budget for health care raises concerns that people will become less motivated to work in the health care sector, Ilze Aizsilniece, President of the Latvian Medical Association, said in an interview with Latvian Radio this morning.

She believes that ''at the moment we cannot just talk about the overworking of doctors due to Covid-19, but that funding is also important and that the allowances paid this year for working with Covid-19 patients must continue to be paid out''.

"For 30 years now, the political rhetoric in health care has been that there is not enough for everything, so we will give a little to everyone," notes Aizsilniece, adding that in the meantime most European Union countries, including Lithuania and Estonia, have had the opportunity to allocate the necessary resources sufficient to finance all the major needs of the sector.

"It should be remembered that one of the most important motivators for young doctors to fight Covid-19 was solid bonuses for working with Covid-19 patients. We already lack specialists, tariffs and workloads have not been reviewed, which certainly cannot be considered motivation to work in health care," said Aizsilniece.