Medical pay expected to rise to 3 times Latvian average over 7 years

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The Ministry of Health has developed a new remuneration model for medical practitioners, to be introduced over seven years. On average, doctors' remuneration is expected to rise to the average salary of 2.74 of the Latvian economy. A gradual increase in wages is also intended for nurses, Latvian Radio said July 29.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Health in co-operation with the State Chancery has organized think tanks for the development of the remuneration model of medical practitioners. These included both medical practitioners and professional organizations representing them, employers in the health sector, academics, and policy makers.

The main result of the work of the think-tank is a seven-year development plan, in which the increase in wages for medical practitioners would grow gradually, providing adequate remuneration for education, skills and the economic level.

The model predicts that a doctor should receive a salary of 2.74 average national economic wages. This would also correspond to the average of the OECD countries. At present, the salary is at 1.86 salaries.

On the basis of the 2019 market data, doctors' salary should be EUR 3086, nurses' - EUR 1820 before tax. The average target wages for different health workers would be as follows:

  • nurse's assistant – EUR 883,
  • registered nurse: EUR 1528,
  • certified nurse: EUR 1820,
  • doctor (trainee or resident) – EUR 2175,
  • certified doctor – EUR 3086.

In order to be able to reach target wages by 2027, average wages should rise by around 11.5% annually for doctors, and 12% for nurses.

The implementation of such a plan would require an additional EUR 70-75 million for medical salaries annually.

It is expected that the basic part of the salary should be 70% of the salary received, while 30% would be the variable part, the Ministry of Health said.

It offers the possibility to raise or reduce salaries by 30% for individual medics on the basis of criteria such as education, experience, level of skills, load of work.

Ministry of Health hopes that the new system will allow for fair, competitive, transparent, flexible and targeted remuneration for medical practitioners.

 

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