Health Ministry wants to reallocate EUR 8.2 million to reforms

RIGA - The Health Ministry wants to reallocate EUR 8.277 million worth of funding, originally earmarked for the treatment of patients with chronic conditions, to health reforms, according to the ministry’s report to the government.

The Health Ministry expects that most of the EUR 10,995,930 allocated this year for the treatment of patients with chronic conditions, will be saved, and the ministry proposes spending this money on the health sector’s ongoing reform.

The ministry explains that upon analyzing hospitals’ capacity and resources it has been concluded that the hospitals had planned 33,000 hospitalizations of chronic patients for 2018, but that the number of chronic patients has been revised to 6,571, which would only require EUR 2,718,968.

In its report, the Health Ministry proposes reallocating the saved money to several other areas, including for the treatment and diagnostics of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, purchases of new equipment and medicines, as well as improving the accessibility of health care services.