In Riga, ambulances are lining up in long queues – patients are placed in unsuitable facilities 0 15

For example, on Monday, June 8, one of the ambulance crews had to wait almost two hours to transfer a patient to the emergency department of Stradins Hospital.

The hospital justifies that on that day, 12 patients were delivered to the emergency department within one hour, which caused the congestion. The chief physician of the hospital, Janis Vilmanis, reported that in such situations, there is an order to place patients in non-specialized departments as well — that is, on any available beds. In practice, this is indeed done, creating difficulties for doctors and, of course, for the patients in Riga.

The emergency department is designed for 40–50 patients per day, but in reality, about 200 patients pass through it daily. According to Vilmanis, the prolonged commissioning of the new A2 building should solve the problem, as the existing infrastructure can no longer handle the necessary load.

In turn, the head of the Emergency Medical Service, Liene Cipule, cited the Ukrainian experience as an example. According to her, in a hospital comparable to Stradins, after drone attacks, 20 patients were delivered and hospitalized in one hour, without any delays.

Cipule stated that it is sad that in Latvia, during peacetime, one has to talk about queues that negatively affect the provision of emergency medical care.