She said that there are still many vacancies in the service, but thanks to the government’s decision to allow medics work more overtime hours than provided by the Labor Law, the number of vacancies has been cut from 306 to 85.
NMPD director Liene Cipule said that in two months the composition of service brigades has improved, and the situation in Rīga has stabilized. Therefore NMPD has decided to lift the state of medical emergency in its Rīga regional center.
Furthermore medics will see their wages grow 18% in February, which still won't make wages competitive, and a discussion over the medium-term future of the service is warranted.
The Latvian Emergency Medical Service on November 9, 2018, decided to declare a state of medical emergency in its Rīga region center due to a rapid walk-out of medical staff.
The service was experiencing a "mass outflow of medics" dissatisfied with excessive workload and meager wages, as well as an uncertainty about their wages in 2019.
