Children's healthcare in Aizkraukle municipality is available, but physiotherapy and some specialists have long queues
In Aizkraukle municipality, children receive state-funded healthcare without co-payment, but physiotherapy funding is insufficient and waits for some specialists last months. There is no paediatrician in Aizkraukle; consultations are offered in Koknese.
Children's healthcare in Aizkraukle municipality, Latvia, is generally accessible, but demand is highest for physiotherapists, and the state funding allocated for this service is insufficient. The regional newspaper “Staburags” examined the situation. It matters for families because waiting times for several specialists are very long, and the Aizkraukle clinic currently has no paediatrician.
Free services and clinic figures
Under the Healthcare Financing Law, children up to 18 are exempt from patient co-payments and can receive state-funded services free of charge. The widest range is offered by SIA “Aizkraukles klīnika”, where 13 types of specialists see children, including an endocrinologist, cardiologist, neurologist, ophthalmologist and child psychiatrist.
Clinic board chair Daina Mūrmane-Umbraško said outpatient care for children was provided 5,418 times in the first nine months of this year, including 1,328 visits to specialist doctors. There were 1,763 visits to physiotherapists and 473 to speech therapists. In physiotherapy, children make up 48% of patients and adults 52%.
Waiting times
The projected wait for a speech therapist is almost two years, and for a psychiatrist 210 days. A surgeon can be seen in five days. The clinic attributes this to a shortage of specialists in the regions and limits on state funding. Some services, such as ABA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders and podiatry, are paid only.
The clinic's emergency admissions department helped children 888 times in the nine months. The clinic no longer has hospital-level care or a children's ward; in complex cases parents go to the Children's Hospital in Riga.
Paediatrician in Koknese
The paediatrician who previously saw patients in Aizkraukle stopped working there. Children now go first to family doctors. The healthcare provider “MFD Veselības grupa” offers paediatric consultations in the municipality, but only in Koknese, twice a month, with an average of 4–8 patients per session. The visit is state-funded and needs no referral. Company representative Laima Kaprāle says services will be developed according to residents' needs.
Family doctor Olga Tomaševska believes a paediatrician in the municipality would be useful, while Pļaviņas family doctor and paediatrician Inese Lejniece thinks that, with advance planning, care is adequately provided.
