Covid-19 has caused general practitioners in Latvia to experience «unreal workload». The unresolved issue of providing additional state-paid assistants remains unresolved, said President of Rural Family Doctors Association of Latvia Līga Kozlovska in an interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma.
She says general practitioners are forced to take on more and more patients every day. They receive more calls, text messages and e-mails related to Covid-19 and other diseases. In parallel to that general practitioners also perform Covid-19 vaccination and reach out to patients to convince them to vaccinate. Seniors, who need vaccination the most, take a lot of time to explain all the details and importance of vaccination, says Kozlovska.
«The psychological load our teams have to endure is very, very large,» says the doctor. She reminds that doctors have been asking Ministry of Health to provide state-paid assistants at least temporary for a long time. However, this issue remains unresolved.
According to Kozlovska, at first here was some support for this proposal from the ministry, which provided for some hope. «Unfortunately, the process slowed to a halt at the beginning of this week. As I understand it, coalition partners have told the government that medical workers have enough money,» explains the expert.
In response general practitioners have sent a letter to the prime minister and minister of finance, inviting them to meet with leaders of organisations uniting general practitioners to resolve this issue.
General practitioners overloaded; still no word on solutions from the state
