Evaluation of healthcare policy in Latvia

Abstract

Performance of healthcare system of Latvia has been criticised for several years, due to the problems of accessibility, weak efficiency and insufficient funding. Politicians, foreign and local experts all agree upon the need of reforms to improve the performance of the healthcare system. The aims are defined in long-term policy documents, but there are no defined tasks to be made and aims to be achieved in mid-term and short-term policy. The aim of the research was to make evaluation of performance of Latvia healthcare system as well as evaluation according to “Health 2020” framework recommendations. The results showed that changes in the healthcare system in Latvia are made on ‘ad-hoc’ basis without a strategic long-term plan, and despite the fact that guidelines on the public health refear to “Health 2020”, the changes that are made and reforms that are planned are not in compliance with “Health 2020”. Work on social determinants (equity, universal coverage, accessibility) hasn’t been effective, the aim ‘health in all policies’ hasn’t been achieved and the primary healthcare due to its unaccessibility doesn’t provide expected efficiency in the whole healthcare system.