Doctors push for “good health”

RIGA - At the VII Latvian Physicians’ Congress in Riga this past weekend, the over 4,000 delegates adopted a resolution demanding from the government a “promise to be kept,” that is, increasing the health sector’s funding by up to 4.5 percent of GDP next year.

A total of 4,000 medical professionals were registered at the Congress, and not only physicians. The resolution points out that increasing the health sector’s funding up to 4.5 percent of GDP would result in the following: first, accessible, high quality, coordinated, permanent and cost-effective health care; second, a sufficient number of medical personnel, and respectable salaries; and third, less practice of direct payments for health care services, including medication, thereby facilitating equality.

The Congress was in agreement that the sector’s overall objective must be “longer life in good health.”