Latvia

Health systems in transition
Latvia
As part of the Master Plan (Section 4.2 Planning and health information
management for an explanation) and in accordance with EU recommendations,
experts of the HSMTSA worked out bed requirements for palliative care. They
are as follows:
• not more than 125 beds for palliative care in the country (on average 5 beds
per 100 000 inhabitants) must be planned for inpatient palliative care up to
the year 2010 (in line also with WHO recommendations);
• the order of priority in terms of the distribution of these beds rests with
the oncology centres and the regional multi-profile hospitals first, over
local multifunctional hospitals, and the related services are ensured by
multidisciplinary teams with not less than 10 palliative care profile beds
on site;
• the average recommended utilization rate for the palliative care profile beds
is 85%.
6.10 Mental health care
The Ministry of Health is responsible for national policy in mental health, and
has delegated responsibilities in this area to its Public Health Department, which
is responsible for development and enforcement of policy for mental health. In
addition, the Mental Health State Agency, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry
of Health, is responsible for coordinating policy that has been approved by the
Ministry and it also provides inpatient and outpatient mental health services.
Legislation that deals with the area of mental health includes the Medical
Treatment Law of 1997, which in chapter XI on “Psychic diseases” regulates
the area of mental health, provides principles for treatment, and also deals with
the issue of compulsory hospitalization in psychiatric hospitals.
In addition, one of the targets (number 6) of the Public Health Strategy
approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2001 states that mental health care
services for the Latvian population should be improved by 2010, and access to
high-quality mental health care should be ensured for all residents. Sub-targets
of this include the following:
• the prevalence of mental health problems should be reduced
• the ability of the Latvian population to overcome stress situations should
improve;
• the suicide rate must decrease by at least 25%.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with WHO, developed
the “Basic Principles on Improvement of Mental Health for the Population
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