On the public initiative portal ManaBalss, a signature collection has begun for the restoration of the round-the-clock emergency care center in the Riga 1st Hospital. The authors of the initiative believe that this will help reduce the burden on the largest hospitals in the capital, shorten patient waiting times, and increase the availability of emergency medical care.
The initiative was submitted by the head of the emergency medical service support center, Krasts Rafael Ciekurs. The signature collection began on June 12, and already 485 people have signed. To submit the initiative for consideration in the Saeima, 10,000 signatures must be collected.
The annotation to the initiative states that there has long been a problem in Riga with the flow of patients requiring emergency care in large hospitals. Emergency medical service teams wait with patients next to the departments for several hours. During this time, the team cannot take the next call, and the patient already delivered to the hospital does not receive timely medical care and treatment.
The emergency medicine center in the Riga 1st Hospital was closed in 2010. According to the author of the initiative, the infrastructure of this hospital could be used more effectively - it could provide assistance to patients with acute illnesses and injuries, including mild and moderate severity, acute internal diseases, conduct urgent medical examinations, provide basic diagnostics, tests, X-rays, and stabilize patients' conditions. The Riga 1st Hospital could take on patients who do not require treatment in university hospitals and specialized high-level centers and not accept patients with multiple injuries, stroke, acute myocardial infarction, severe sepsis, etc.
As reported by Latvian Television on Tuesday, traffic jams sometimes form near the emergency department of Stradins Hospital, where emergency vehicles can be stuck for hours. On Monday, one emergency medical service team had to wait nearly two hours before they could admit a patient.
Leave a comment