Health care accessibility and disparities in medical staff availability in Latvia

The Health care accessibility for inhabitants, especially in rural regions, is related to the problem of the medical staff availability in state and municipal hospitals and ambulatory institutions as well as for General Practitioners. Despite the fact, that there are two state Universities – University of Latvia and Rıga Stradiņš University, as well as colleges, that educate medical staff – there is a lack of human resources in health care institutions in Latvia. The Ministry of Health and municipalities had several initiatives to solve this problem – changes in regulations for Residency students, programme financed by European Funds with obtainable funding in the amount of 10 million euro, as well as different stimuli and programmes from municipalities. The research explores the current situation with staff availability and, basing on interviews and outcomes, analyzes the effectiveness of the available programmes to attract human resources, and predict the impact and outcomes of those activities. The results showed that all the programmes had some fragmented positive impact and partially solve the problem, but those activities will not provide sufficient outcomes and the problem of medical staff availability will still be the urgent topic in future.