Expert: Healthcare Should Focus More on Disease Prevention
Ahead of elections, political parties are promising to fix Latvia's healthcare system, but experts point out that the country's public health indicators are twice as bad as the European average.
As Latvia's elections approach, political parties have devoted significant space in their campaign platforms to healthcare. Their promises include shortening waiting lists for medical treatment, increasing funding for the health sector, raising wages for medical staff, and making services more accessible to patients.
However, one expert argues that the greater priority should not be limited to improving treatment systems, but should instead focus on preventing disease before it occurs. This view is supported by data on the population's overall health, which point to deep, systemic problems within the sector.
Indicators show a serious gap
Statistics show that health indicators for Latvia's population are twice as poor as the European Union average. This gap suggests that current approaches — regardless of how they are funded or organized — have so far failed to meaningfully improve public health.
Most campaign promises focus on the functioning of the treatment system itself: reducing queues, boosting budgets, and raising medical salaries. Yet if most resources continue to go toward treating existing illnesses rather than preventing them, the underlying situation may remain largely unchanged even after the election.
Whether the next government will be able to reorient health policy toward prevention remains an open question.
