Latvian State Agency of Medicines (ZVA) has plans to compose a special unit to compensate residents harm caused by side-effects from Covid-19 vaccine.
The Latvian government approved a system to compensate harm from Covid-19 vaccines in May 2022. ZVA therefore requires new functions, which, in turn, requires additional human and material resources.
It was planned for the unit to consist of eight employees, with four as legal consultants from the state administration, three as senior experts and one unit manager.
Document circulation, registration, contract signing, accounting process monitoring, quality management processes, as well as human resources will be provided by existing ZVA employees.
In the plan suggested by the Ministry of Health and approved by the government it is stated that with the existing funding and human resources the agency cannot provide the new suggested functions.
In order to create new jobs, the agency needs additional funding of EUR 155 900 a year.
ZVA Public Relations Office manager Dita Okmane explained that during the budget amendment coordination stage the planned number of new hobs was reduced to five. The planned funding for 2022 was also reduced.
ZVA invites specialists to submit applications for the post of office manager and senior experts.
Creation of new jobs will require financing of EUR 93 133.
Funding is needed to cover the compensation requests submitted for confirmed health problems caused by Covid-19 vaccine injections.
At the end of the year it is planned to evaluate the necessary functions and resources, said Okmane.
ZVA received 43 compensation requests related to side-effects caused by Covid-19 vaccine jabs so far. Compensation requests were denied in 28 cases.
The most common reason is failure to meet all formalities or that the uncovered side-effects are not on the list of confirmed side-effects. 15 compensation requests are under review.
So far there has been only one case when ZVA saw no reason to decline a compensation request. Relatives of the patient are therefore eligible to receive EUR 142 290.
In accordance with established rules, compensation is paid only if side-effects are long-lasting. Medical law experts, meanwhile, call this absurd.