Availability assessment of physician practices in Latvia
2011
Racene, A., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics
Health is the most important factor affecting the quality of life of individuals. In health care, individuals, first, meet their family physician. Therefore, availability of family physicians is of great importance. The paper includes the results of a study on the availability of physician practices from the point of view of provision of social infrastructure. The research object is physician practice services in Latvian regions. A survey of patients was conducted to achieve the research aim. During the survey, the opinions and knowledge of patients on primary health care, its funding procedure and availability were ascertained as well as the opinions of patients were identified on the availability of guaranteed health care services. The respondents were selected from all the regions of Latvia to identify, as much as possible, the real situation in the whole territory. The paper ends with the conclusions and recommendations for the present situation. It was concluded that, in general, physician practices are available from the point of view of patients; though it is necessary to improve the present situation with their availability by prolonging their working hours and the attitudes of patients and physicians to each other as well as to solve the financial aspects, so that patients can be sure that they would receive quality health care services when it is necessary.
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