training

Year family medicine established: 1993 (Seifert et al., 2008)

Type of Training: Residency

Length of Training: There are 6 years of medical school (Seifert et al., 2008) followed by a 3-year training program.

Number of institutions that offer family medicine: There are 2 universities with family medicine training, Rīga Stradiņš University and at the University of Latvia (Brekke et al., 2013)

Number of family medicine residents graduating each year: unknown

practice

Number of family doctors in country (2016): 1,412 family physicians (Eurostat, 2016)

Physician to population ratio (2006): 56.1 family physicians per 100,000 people (Masseria et al., 2009).

DALY: 19,615 per 100,000 individuals (Due to all Causes).

Life Expectancy:

• Females 2017: 79.7 years

• Males 2017: 69.6 years

Mortality rate 2017:

• 2017 Males: 229 per 1,000 male adults.

• 2017 Females: 85 per 1,000 female adults.

Infant Immunization-HepB3: % of 1-year-old children received: 96%

College of Family Physicians (Y or N):

• No

training

Family medicine was created as a specialty in Latvia in 1993 (Seifert et al., 2008). In order to train family physicians here is a residency program. This 3 years of training follows 6 years of medical school (Admissions RSU, 2018). Once this is complete, doctors have to work in a Health Payment center for three years, providing care in places where doctors are required or pay back the cost of their studies to the state within five years. There are also obligatory continuing medical education or examination requirements for doctors to be recertified every five years (Brekke et al., 2013).

There are 2 universities with family medicine training, Rīga Stradiņš University and at the University of Latvia (Brekke et al., 2013) The number of residents graduating each year in family medicine is currently unknown.

practice

“The major providers of primary care are family doctors, but 6% of the primary care workforce consists of “old” primary care physicians (district doctors) – pediatricians and internists – who have been contracted by the state to provide primary health care services. Dentists are also included in the primary care providers’ list in Latvia.”

Family doctors provide comprehensive care irrespective of the patient’s age, gender and health problems. 

There is a partial gatekeeping system in Latvia. People need a referral from a family doctor to see a specialist, with the exception of gynecologists and sport medicine physicians. Pediatricians, ophthalmologists and children’s surgeons are directly accessible specialists (Masseria et al., 2009)