The state budget funding for healthcare in Latvia will be EUR 1.6 billion in 2023. This amount was approved by the government on Tuesday, the 7th of February. Now the Saeima is to vote on this. Priority measures are planned to receive EUR 85.8 million.
The Ministry of Health Department for Communications notes these priorities will include cancer treatment, child healthcare and increase of wages of medical workers.
Of the EUR 1.6 billion to be provided to healthcare, EUR 1.35 billion is planned to go to outpatient and inpatient health care services – general practitioners, laboratory tests, consultations from healthcare specialists and health examination activities, emergency medical assistance and planned medical manipulations, as well as compensated medicines.
EUR 124 million is planned to go to specialised healthcare services: emergency medical assistance, blood and blood component stores, forensic medical examinations and anti-doping policy.
The statement from the Ministry of Health indicates that additional amount of EUR 85.8 million for healthcare in 2023
will help partially resolve the existing problems of the sector and improve healthcare accessibility for residents.
To improve cancer treatment this year, it is planned to allocate and additional amount of EUR 30 million. Funding will be diverted towards funding of compensated medicines for cancer patients and to improve diagnostic services. There are also plans to perform indexation of healthcare services.
To improve healthcare accessibility for children, it is planned to allocate an additional amount of EUR 5 million. This will help ensure coverage of cochlear implants and glucose monitoring systems, as well as help cover costs of compensated medicines for patients suffering from cystic fibrosis.
Additional funding will help ensure higher wages for doctors, nurses, assistant nurses and other medical personnel.
Emphasis will be put on people who receive the lowest wages.
It is planned for wages of doctors to grow by 6.11%, wages of nurses – by 10.14% and wages of assistant nurses – by 16.11%.
Because of the shortage of nurses, an additional amount of EUR 2.8 million is planned to be diverted towards general nurse position in healthcare.
Last year Latvia’s healthcare budget was EUR 2 billion, because in the first half-year, which is largely due to measures to battle Covid-19 and consequences from the pandemic.
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