Waiting lists for surgery and diagnostics can stretch... for many, many years! 0 5

"In Latvia, there are healthcare services for which in certain medical institutions one has to wait not days and months, but years, and there are 12 such institutions with record-long waiting times," reported the Latvian TV news service this evening.

Data from the National Health Service shows that the longest waiting lists are for knee and hip joint prosthetics.

For example, to get into the Madona Hospital for dynamic observation after knee joint endoprosthesis, one must wait 396 weeks, or more than 7 years and 7 months. On average, this service has to be waited for 4 years across the country.

Currently, 5,346 patients are waiting for knee joint endoprosthesis, which is the highest number of people waiting. On average, to receive this surgery in one of the nine hospitals that perform it, one must wait two years and one month.

Latvian TV summarized the institutions where one has to wait the longest for state-funded examinations, but this does not mean that it could not be obtained earlier in other places.

Leading the list is electromyography, which assesses the health of muscles and nerves. If one needs to receive such a service at the "Aura-R" Health Center in Riga, one should consider that while on average across the country this examination takes a year and a half to wait for, in this center it is over 12 years. However, for example, in Daugavpils, this examination takes less than a year to wait for.

Similarly, several ultrasound and Doppler examinations of the blood vessels of the head and neck at the Riga 1st Hospital. On average across the country, these state-funded examinations take about six months to wait for, while at the Riga 1st Hospital — 3 years and 8 months.

And how long does one have to wait to see a specialist under the quota?

The longest waiting times are for rheumatologists and gastroenterologists — on average, for a state-funded visit, it takes 8-9 months, while in the Riga 1st Hospital and the "Aura-R" Health Center in Riga — over 4 years.

In certain places, one also has to wait quite a long time to see a cardiologist, allergist, and endocrinologist.

Access to specialists is like a lottery — for example, to see a cardiologist in Rujiena, Daugavpils, or Alūksne for a state-funded visit, one can get an appointment within two weeks, while for a gastroenterologist, the wait is nowhere less than two months.