The Latvian Association of Family Physicians (LġAA) calls on family physician practices to pay an additional part-time employee from 2025, in order to be able to attract suitable employees who cannot work full-time, such as students, new mothers and older people, the association told the Ministry of Health (MoH ) in a letter with a series of objections regarding proposals for strengthening primary health care.
LGAA criticizes that the Ministry of Interior did not listen to the opinion of several organizations that additional employees should be allowed to be hired with a flexible workload, but the ministry instead provides only the possibility of full-time employment.
The association asks the extension worker to estimate the nurse’s rate of pay, setting a workload that is possible within the budget, such as 0.7 or 0.5 workload. LGAA claims that the working group had an agreement on providing an additional employee’s salary at the level of a nurse’s or physician’s assistant salary at least from 2025, if it is not possible in 2024. However, the Ministry of the Interior’s report foresees the salary of a nursing assistant – 925 euros gross, which is less than 700 euros after taxes. Taking into account the fact that the employee is required to work with sensitive personal health data, LGAA considers that the planned salary level is inadequately low, as it corresponds to approximately 60% of the average salary in the country.
The association suggests revising the maintenance payment for the basic practices of family doctors, without removing the costs of the workplace and premises of one nurse or physician’s assistant, but increasing the accounting and cleaning expenses in accordance with the salary increase in 2025, as well as supplementing it with the costs of continuing education activities and additional costs for each subsequent employee, however, when reviewing payment items that are not relevant and not reconciled.
Regarding the expansion of the performed manipulations, the LGAA calls for payment for the preparation of referrals for persons to the State Commission for Health and Work Capacity Expertise Doctors in the amount of at least 1.4 million euros in 2024, in the amount of 3.289 million euros in 2025, as well as the review of all manipulations and new implementation to be planned for 2025. year.
The LGAA requires planning “sufficient and balanced funding for activities that would promote the implementation of optimal practice – the optimal number of patients, good provision of practices with both human resources and appropriate premises and equipment”. The state should “ensure equal opportunities for every family doctor to provide equal family doctor services to their patients throughout Latvia and should be remunerated accordingly”.
The association encourages allowing the possibility of free cooperation between practices, as it currently exists, without special agreements between practices and restrictions within the framework of the contract or district, ensuring equality in payment between medical institutions, paying the salary of the team members and the office maintenance fee.
LGAA opposes motivational payments to family doctors for activities in general practice. Also, the association does not support certain financial advantages of cooperation and inequality in relation to other institutions, because “every service must be paid equally to all medical institutions, but the introduction of additional services requires an evaluation”. LGAA calls for abandoning the implementation of common practices.
Tags: series objections Association Family Physicians proposals strengthen primary health care
