37 research outputs found
Latvian health care competitiveness in relation to its infrastructure and available resources
No full textResources are one of the essential indicators for the functioning of the health care system. Better health care provision is an essential prerequisite for the export of services. Traditionally a competitive health care system is linked to a number of factors (price, quality, reliability, products and services) largely determined by the new technologies, innovations and implementation the new methods. The authors of this article analyzed and collected data from the European Commission Eurostat and OECD data. Current situation in health care in Latvia is characterized by populations’ restricted access to health care services, high out-of-pocket payments and poor health outcomes of the population. More than 10% of Latvian population can’t afford medical care. The ratio of public funding for healthcare in Latvia is among the lowest in EU countries. Latvia spends 5.3% (USD PPP 1217) of GDP on health, lower than the OCED country average of 8.9% (USD PPP 3453). Latvia is facing a dramatic gap between the availability of hospital beds and long term care beds and the lowest prevalence of general medical practitioners among all Baltic States 321.6 per 100 000. These mentioned factors may hinder the development of health care in Latvia and reduce the ability to participate in international health service market
The Development of a Consistent Europe-Wide Approach to Investigating the Economic Impact of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS)
No full textWe have developed a Europe-wide approach to investigating the economic impact of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), facilitating acquisition of information on the economic burden of ME/CFS, and international comparisons of economic costs between countries. The economic burden of ME/CFS in Europe appears large, with productivity losses most significant, giving scope for substantial savings through effective prevention and treatment. However, economic studies of ME/CFS, including cost-of-illness analyses and economic evaluations of interventions, are problematic due to different, arbitrary case definitions, and unwillingness of doctors to diagnose it. We therefore lack accurate incidence and prevalence data, with no obvious way to estimate costs incurred by undiagnosed patients. Other problems include, as for other conditions, difficulties estimating direct and indirect costs incurred by healthcare systems, patients and families, and heterogeneous healthcare systems and patterns of economic development across countries. We have made recommendations, including use of the Fukuda (CDC-1994) case definition and Canadian Consensus Criteria (CCC), a pan-European common symptom checklist, and implementation of prevalence-based cost-of-illness studies in different countries using an agreed data list. We recommend using purchasing power parities (PPP) to facilitate international comparisons, and EuroQol-5D as a generic measure of health status and multi-attribute utility instrument to inform future economic evaluations in ME/CFS
Price of human life: Medical, legal and social aspects
No full textThe author of the article turns attention to the phenomenon of human life, recognizing it as the value which is hard and complicated to define. The price of a human life comprises philosophical, political, sociological and legal issues. From the legal and philosophical aspect the price of a human life is practically impossible to determine, since it is worth the highest price. Determination of the price of human life means admitting that a human is the measure of value in a certain community under appropriate socially economic conditions. Different approaches and methodologies are applied in determination of a materialized price of a human life, therefore the rating of the price is varied. In determining the price of a human life, the legal aspect is important, since it deals with the fixation of the amount of compensations in cases of an individual's loss of life and calculations of the insurance costs
Meaning of profiling of cybercriminals in the security context
No full textIn this article, the author analyzes the criminological aspects of profiling of cybercriminals. The development and trends of crime are affected by both the globalization process and the development of information technology. All over the world, crime, disorder and riots are causing more and more troubles and worries for people. Nowadays, cybercrime or criminal offenses committed in the Internet environment take a stable position in the overall mass of criminal offenses. Cyberspace is easy to use to harm an individual, a group of people, or a country as a whole. The role of profiling cybercriminals is determined by the tasks of law enforcement authorities. The profile of cybercriminal combines the personal traits of cybercriminal, behavioural patterns, and demographic data based on cybercrime characteristics
Medical practitioner's legal regulations in the practice from urban-rural development perspective
No full textThe role of medical practitioners in community safety area is huge. Especially huge responsibility medical practitioners have in medical treatment process from the point of view of treatment quality and legal liability. Medical practitioners are professionals regardless of territoriality. The mission and functions they perform do not depend on practice place. The responsibility is equal in both urban and rural level. To protect community safety from the medical practitioners' perspectives they should know their own rights, as well as patient's rights in healthcare. From the particular legal regulations arise duties and responsibilities of medical practitioners, which are described in the paper. The aim of the research is to study legislation that regulates medical practitioner‘s rights and duties in Latvia. The task of the paper is to study the characteristics of rights of medical practitioners in Latvia and the medical practitioner's knowledge of patients' rights in Latvia. In the research, the author has used general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, modelling, comparative method, inductive and deductive method, methods of interpretation of legal norms – grammatical, teleological, historical, as well as empirical method – survey. The paper describes the most important legal regulations in medical practitioner's activity, as well as defines problems and provides potential solutions that are necessary to protect community's safety. The results of the paper show that the regulatory framework exists in the field of healthcare of Latvia. Also in the field of professional activity, legal regulations exist, which govern the professional activity of medical practitioners. They are included in various law sectors (civil rights, labour rights, criminal rights, etc.). Apart from that, there exist a large number of legislative regulations of national level, which govern the professional activities of medical practitioners (special laws and Cabinet Regulations). It should be noted, that the competences of medical practitioners are not consolidated, but stipulated in separate legislative provision for each group of medical practitioners (for a doctor, doctor's assistant, nurse, etc.). The medical practitioner's knowledge of patients' rights is not good enough, especially in rural areas of Latvia
Criminological characteristics of sexual violence
No full textThe aim of the current article is to analyse the criminological aspect of sexual violence. Nowadays sexual assault has become a major social issue in many contemporary cultures. Sexual violence is a complex interdisciplinary issue, which includes several aspects psychological, judicial, medical, and other aspects. Sexual crime is an urgent problem with a high level of latency, most part of such crimes are not reported in crime statistics. Particularly, sexual violence against children is a serious problem for Latvia and the world. At present, there is a sharp increase in such crimes as a human trafficking or commercial sexual exploitation; as well as the number of sexual crimes against boys is rising. Expansion of criminal activity in the cyberspace has also increased
Evaluation of healthcare policy in Latvia
No full textPerformance of healthcare system of Latvia has been criticised for several years, due to the problems of accessibility, weak efficiency and insufficient funding. Politicians, foreign and local experts all agree upon the need of reforms to improve the performance of the healthcare system. The aims are defined in long-term policy documents, but there are no defined tasks to be made and aims to be achieved in mid-term and short-term policy.
The aim of the research was to make evaluation of performance of Latvia healthcare system as well as evaluation according to “Health 2020” framework recommendations.
The results showed that changes in the healthcare system in Latvia are made on ‘ad-hoc’ basis without a strategic long-term plan, and despite the fact that guidelines on the public health refear to “Health 2020”, the changes that are made and reforms that are planned are not in compliance with “Health 2020”. Work on social determinants (equity, universal coverage, accessibility) hasn’t been effective, the aim ‘health in all policies’ hasn’t been achieved and the primary healthcare due to its unaccessibility doesn’t provide expected efficiency in the whole healthcare system
Cybercrime and sexual exploitation of children in e-environment in the context of strengthening urban and rural security
No full textAmong various types of threats to urban and rural security, there has been an increase in cybercrime in recent years, an increase in criminal offenses in the e-environment. This also applies to the sexual exploitation of children in the e-environment. Sexual violence against children in cyberspace is linked to objectively determined factors, such as the development of Internet technologies and their wide availability. The active efforts of children to learn and use the new technologies, the attractiveness of the virtual environment in contrast to the real situation and the ambiguous and in many cases incomprehensible nature, as well as the saturation of pornographic material in the Internet, the weak control of their distribution, should be noted. Due to the increasing availability of the Internet, the expansion of e-services in cities and rural areas is relatively balanced. An Internet user may be at risk in both big cities and in a less populated rural area. Among Internet users the proportion of young people and children is relatively high, which objectively determines their increased victimization potential. Among threats to children related to the e-environment, multiple forms of child sexual abuse, including cyberbullying, sextings, sextorings, cyberstalkings, are increasing
“Student as a consumer” in Latvian higher education
No full textThe authors felt it necessary to update the discussion, which is associated with higher education, as one of the forms, which operates under free market conditions, and the relationship that is established between the higher education institutions and the students. Higher Education Institutions is a “service provider”, but the student recipient of the service – “consumer”. Both the Latvian and international higher education area is very different and there are conflicting views on the issue. Consequently, the authors wanted to analyze the current situation in Latvia, look at the legal framework relating to the above problem and to provide their views
Motivating factors of infection control in nurse practice
No full textHospitals in developed countries for more than 170 years have been studying and validating a variety of methods for staff motivation: education at work, distributed leaflets, seminars and lectures, provided the necessary equipment and personal protective equipment as well as surveillance and control provided by the hospital epidemiological service. No less important role nurses play in the motivation of psychological factors, such as attitudes, habits, stress and tolerance. Aim – to explore the motivating factors of infection control in nurse practice. The study used qualitative research method – structured interview (n = 36) and a quantitative study – questionnaires (n = 230). Questionnaires engaged 98 intensive care nurses and 132 surgical nurses. Results – most of the nurses (62.2%) regularly improved their knowledge of infection control. Infection control rules in their work regularly used 86.1% of respondents, while 13.9% of respondents irregularly applied infection control within the patient care process, posing a threat to their own health as well as to patient's health. Nurses noted several motivating factors for infection control, for example, the importance of the rules in patient care (94.3%), availability of infection control rules in the ward (92.6%), regular supervision provided by head nurse (84.8%), positive attitude of colleagues (80.4%), availability of the necessary equipment and personal protective equipment, understandable and simple rules for infection control, sufficient time for infection control in patient care, adequate infection control and surveillance in high risk units, provided by the hospital epidemiological service. The most frequently mentioned reasons for breaking the infection control rules were increased workload and burnout, as well as the lack of understanding of the importance of infection control in patients’ health maintenance and inappropriate attitude. Conclusions – the study suggests that in high-risk units there are different motivating factors of infection control, such as the necessary equipment and personal protective equipment, comprehensibility and accessibility of infection control rules, infection control and surveillance provided by the hospital epidemiological service. And at the same time, there are factors that disturb nurses’ motivation, such as an increased workload, lack of awareness of infection control in practice and inappropriate attitude
