Dobele county municipality’s public relations office reports about the visit by the council chairman Ivars Gorskis and LLC Dobele District Hospital manager Leons Zariņš to the Ministry of Health to protest and determine the hospital’s future.
The chairman of Dobele Council stresses that after the discussion held on Tuesday, the 1st of August, he had to conclude: the ministry has not done any estimates or data analysis. There was neither an estimate of financial gains from the planned changes nor a comparison of quality of medical services.
Gorskis said he is confused about controversies on the national level – in theory the focus is regional development,
but it all comes down to concentrating all services in Riga.
According to him, the liquidation of the hospital’s services and jobs will cause capable professionals to leave the regions in favour of looking for jobs in the capital city or foreign countries.
“In reality the country lacks money for medicine, but reforms are implemented and entire wards in small hospitals are liquidated to force people to pay more for the same services,” concluded the chairman of Dobele County Council. He says there were investments made into repairs and improvement of the hospital’s infrastructure. On top of that, the municipality tried using stipends to attract new specialists to work in the hospital. “What medical specialist would ever decide to work in a hospital listed for liquidation?” Gorskis rhetorically asked.
As previously reported, last week mass media reported that last year the number of child births handled by five medical institutions in Latvia was less than 500. This is why the Ministry of Health has plans to liquidate obstetric assistance services at Dobele District Hospital.
The announcement from the municipality mentions: although the Ministry of Health notes that when planning accessibility of obstetrician services
it is important to consider territorial accessibility,
when it comes to the liquidation of this ward in Dobele District Hospital, this principle was not taken into account, which risks abandoning a large part of the territory in the border area in Saldus, Dobele and Bauska counties, from which it is impossible to reach the nearest hospital within one hour.
Gorskis comments: “The problem is generally much deeper – because liquidation of maternity wards is the biggest and more notable event. The plan already
includes gradual liquidation of other services
in Dobele District Hospital. […] On a more positive note – it was possible to convince the minister [Līga Meņģelsone] and the ministry’s officials to preserve certain services in Dobele District Hospital, but the main problem still remains. The minister and the ministry’s officials still want to liquidate the childbirth ward of Dobele District Hospital”.
He promised residents they will resist: “Of course, we will not give up – we will continue fighting using all available means and channels to preserve the childbirth ward in the hospital. This time
we will ask all residents of the county to get involved and contribute.
This is why I ask all residents to not stand on the side-lines and instead be active and voice their opinion on this matter!”
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