RIGA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian government on Tuesday approved a reform plan for the Baltic country's healthcare system.
The plan, which has been outlined in the Health Ministry's report, calls for sweeping transformation in the Latvian health sector and higher pay for medics.
The ministers greenlighted the reform plan amid an ongoing strike of general practitioners, or family physicians as they are called in Latvia, who are demanding higher government funding per patient.
The reform plan proposed by the Health Ministry includes measures like raising Latvia's health budget to 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, which among other things would allow increasing medical specialists' pay, reorganizing healthcare institutions and defining local authorities' role in ensuring healthcare services.
The reform plan also calls for a more compact and efficient hospital network, smaller family physicians' practices and innovative medications to cancer patients.
According to the reform plan, provision of highly complex medical services would be concentrated in Latvia's largest medical centers, while the network of healthcare institutions would be designed to ensure that those patients who do not need inpatient treatment can receive services as close to their home as possible, the Health Ministry said.
By Sept. 15, the Health Ministry will work out a detailed plan for the development of the primary care system, and local authorities' role in ensuring healthcare services will be debated until March 1, 2018.
The Health Ministry is also determined to go ahead with the launch of the much-criticized e-health system, which is intended to help patients follow and control their health data and quickly provide necessary information on patients to physicians and other medical staff. Enditem
