Today, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Minister of Health Ilze Viņķele in the Riga Castle by continuing the round of talks with government ministers and discussing key issues and plans for the development of sectoral policies.
During the conversation with Ms Viņķele, a range of issues was discussed by focusing on the systemic organisation of the healthcare sector and the development of forward-looking policy. Both parties discussed the range of medical and social care services and problems related thereto in Latvian hospitals. One emphasised that inequality of society should be reduced in health care. They discussed medium and long-term options for the provision of medical staff in health care institutions as well as the issue of remuneration of specialists in the sector.
Mr Levits expressed interest in arranging e-health, and Ms Viņķele informed about the work of the Ministry of Health, which included correcting previous mistakes on their merits basically and achieving an efficient and up-to-date tool that would help both doctors and patients. The President of Latvia also expressed interest in the development of the genome project.
The President of Latvia and the Minister of Health discussed public health policy and the need to change public behaviour patterns when promoting health prevention and healthy lifestyle habits.
The President of Latvia appreciated that the arrangement of the system was rapidly moving forward under the currently complicated conditions in the sector.
