Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits had a remote meeting with representatives of the Latvian Association of Large Hospitals – Chair of the Board of Children’s University Hospital Valts Ābols, Chair of the Board of Riga East University Hospital Imants Paeglītis and Chair of the Board of Pauls Stradiņš University Hospital Rinalds Muciņš – to discuss the latest information regarding outbreak of the Coronavirus disease Covid-19, hospital-level preparedness for various scenarios of further transmission of virus and the strategic role of hospitals in future healthcare system.
President of Latvia was keen to learn more about the protection of medical staff against the virus. He also asked questions about staff hours, infection prevention in hospital setting and testing of persons. President warmly thanked all the health workers on the frontline: ‘I want to thank all health workers on the virus prevention frontline. I also want to thank hospitals for their efficient and rapid response. I am absolutely certain and looking at the magnitude of the Covid-19 outbreak we can also see that the largest hospitals of Latvia were and still are better prepared to offer early response to current emergency than some other European countries. I want to say a very big thank you to hospital managements and medical staff for that!’
Egils Levits also pointed out that ‘the harshest lesson of this crisis is that healthcare should be a bigger spending priority, and a bigger value. Our people see it now. We will have to continue working on healthcare system models after the crisis’.