On 10 November, President of Latvia Egils Levits had a virtual meeting with Līga Kozlovska, President of Rural Family Doctors Association of Latvia. President Levits warmly thanked President Kozlovska and rural GPs for their contribution in fighting the pandemic. GPs are currently faced with enormous responsibility and increased workload as a result of that. Egils Levits praised Līga Kozlovska and members of the rural family medicine association for showing their civic stance and actively encouraging everyone to get inoculated to stop the pandemic.
Egils Levits was keen to find out more about the everyday work of the GPs during the pandemic, people’s attitudes in regions of Latvia and how to convince people to get vaccinated. Līga Kozlovska underlined the human resource constraints faced by most GPs during the pandemic and urged to engage assistant nurses and doctors more actively in distributing vaccines. Government has unfortunately failed to provide additional Covid-19 support to general practices during the pandemic despite ongoing pleas of the association to finance a third general practice nurse/assistant for the past 12 months. President of Latvia agreed on the urgency of such aid, given the circumstances, for achieving higher rate of vaccine coverage and taking the additional load off GPs.
As it turned out, GPs are not reimbursed for Covid-19 house calls. E-health system deficiencies are also taking a toll on GPs in terms of quality and speed of their service.
More efficient fight against Covid-19 in Latgale was another topic discussed during the meeting. President Kozlovska mentioned that mayor’s should play a greater role in notifying their constituents. Greater use of municipality-owned media should also be made. More information about pandemic-related risks should be available across parishes and congregations. Mobile vaccination buses and teams going out to remote rural areas are a great example of ways to increase vaccination rate and reach out to people.
Meeting also focused on internship programmes, incentives for more general practices in the countryside, especially in places where there are no GPs. President Kozlovska mentioned that a bonus would be a great way to encourage GPs to relocate to regions. President Levits agreed and underlined that additional financial incentives at the national or local level would foster the interest in opening general practices in the countryside.