Latvian society has an enormous drinking problem, said Chairman of the Board of Riga Eastern Clinical University Hospital (RAKUS) Normunds Staņēvičs in an interview to TV3.
According to the head of RAKUS, excessive alcohol consumption is also one of the main reasons why hospitals are overworked – residents who consume alcohol in excess often end up hospitalised, making it more difficult to provide other healthcare services.
Staņēvičs said that in 2024 the number of people hospitalised at RAKUS, had increased by about 2 000, and this growing trend, in turn, lowers the possibilities to provide elective assistance. This means the queues for elective assistance and examinations are growing.
Currently queues are the longest for endocrinological assistance, cardiology, magnetic resonance imaging.
It is an enormous societal problem, said Staņēvičs, adding that the problem is the same for all of Europe, but it is one of the biggest for Latvian medical institutions.
The new generation wants greater work time flexibility. This requires a larger number of staff, said Staņēvičs. He mentioned that many in the medical profession want to work in private clinics, because they normally handle “easier patients” and there is less stress involved. RAKUS manager believes the wages of university hospital employees should be bigger because of this situation.
As for the construction of a new infectious diseases ward for RAKUS, where the hospital missed the opportunity to acquire considerable funding from the European Union, Staņēvičs said the new building will be completed – the procurement procedure has commenced and the aim is to complete the project in 2027.
According to Staņēvičs, the main reason why the first procurement was a failure was the “starvation the healthcare sector has been submitted to for dozens of years”. Because of this, when money for infrastructure development appears, attempts are usually made to grab amounts that are too large for the state and hospital to properly use.