Latvia's Emergency Medical Service and private clinics' association agree on crisis cooperation

Latvia's Emergency Medical Service (NMPD) and the Healthcare Employers' Association (VADDA), which represents private medical institutions, have signed a cooperation agreement. It aims to strengthen the health sector's readiness for emergencies, threats to the state and other crises. NMPD announced the deal on 19 October.

What information will be shared

The agreement provides for systematic and timely exchange of data on the healthcare resources of the association's members. The parties will regularly map medical staff capacity, inpatient and outpatient service options, the bed fund, diagnostic and laboratory capacity, medical devices, equipment, materials and transport. In a crisis, this information is to be updated promptly.

What changes

NMPD had already mapped private facilities' resources under the State Disaster Medicine Plan. The new agreement makes this cooperation more effective, as VADDA brings together more than 70 members, including private clinics, health centres and laboratories. The association will take on a coordinating role in the flow of information between its members and the service. It will also serve as a single platform for discussing improvements to the disaster medicine system.

NMPD director Liene Cipule stresses that in a crisis the key is the ability to quickly establish what resources are available at a given moment, how to combine them and use them more efficiently. In her view, for residents this means better sector readiness for situations when all possible resources must be mobilised within a short time.

VADDA board chairman Māris Rēvalds says the state's crisis preparedness is unthinkable without the private sector. He recalls that during the Covid-19 pandemic private institutions already demonstrated the ability to mobilise resources and adapt to emergency conditions. The agreement will turn that experience into clear cooperation mechanisms.

Part of the security system

One of NMPD's functions is planning the disaster medicine system, which is part of the state's civil protection and national security system. The agreement implements the comprehensive state defence approach set out in the State Defence Concept, which calls for close cooperation among the state, municipalities, and the non-governmental and private sectors to keep critical functions running during crises and threats to the state.