Latvia

Health systems in transition
Latvia
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expensive 8%
bad diagnosis 8%
During September and October 2005, the EC conducted a Eurobarometer
survey of inhabitants of the EU25. Information was collected on issues that
focused mainly on the extent of trust in doctors and opinions about the frequency
of medical errors. A total of 76% of Latvian respondents believe that medical
errors made by health care professionals are a very significant problem in Latvia.
This indicator is just below the EU25 average of 78%. However, 74% of Latvian
respondents believe that medical errors occur in hospitals, compared with only
47% in the EU25. A total of 34% of Latvian respondents have read or heard about
medical errors in Latvian hospitals, which coincides exactly with the average
of the EU25, and 23% of Latvian respondents or members of their family have
suffered from unfavourable impacts of medication recommended by doctors,
compared with only 11% in the EU25 (European Commission 2006).
In 1999 an epidemiological survey was performed in Latvia relating to
inhabitants’ opinions about the Latvian health care system (Karaskevica 2004).
Within the framework of this survey, access to health care services was evaluated
by the level of satisfaction with medical service at the place of residence.
The results showed that 43.6% of respondents were satisfied with health care,
32.8% were not, and 23.5% had no definite answer to the question.
The proportion of people in the countryside who reported dissatisfaction
with locally available health care (42.4%) was significantly below the respective
proportion in urban areas (56.9%). It is likely that rural inhabitants have simply
accepted the fact that there is only one health care institution in their local
municipality and that they therefore do not have much choice. At the same
time, whereas urban residents have a choice of provider, they report lower
satisfaction (Karaskevica 2004).
The rural population was less satisfied with the distance that must be covered
to access a health care institution, noting problems regarding transport as well
as dissatisfaction with the opening hours of health care facilities.
Women were l.2 times more likely than men to express dissatisfaction
with health care. The proportion of rural women who were dissatisfied was
lower than those of urban women (42.4% compared with 56.9%, respectively)
(Karaskevica 2004).
A total of 34.5% of respondents complained about long waiting times for
medical services; a further 34.4% complained of lack of access to a specialist
physician; 13.4% had problems with transport; 12.3% noted the long distance
to a health care institution; and 5.4% noted unsatisfactory opening hours at
health care facilities (Karaskevica 2004).
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