In order to maintain the ability to provide timely emergency medical assistance to patients in life-critical situations, the Emergency Medical Assistance Service (EMS) will switch to emergency mode from Wednesday, December 28, the service informed.
This decision was made by the NMPD Emergency Management Group, as the number of calls received to the emergency phone and brigades in non-emergency situations continues to increase as the number of cases of flu, Covid-19 and other upper respiratory tract infections increase in the community.
Currently, the NMPD emergency telephone dispatchers already receive more than 2,000 calls every day,
of which 300-400 are associated with cold situations, elevated temperature, runny nose, headache and other symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections. This creates high risks for citizens in really critical situations of not being able to quickly call and receive emergency help.
Liene Cipule, director of the Emergency Medical Services, emphasizes: “The duty of the service is to do everything so that patients whose lives must be saved immediately receive medical assistance as soon as possible.
In these situations, patients have no other alternative than the service medical team. It really is the seconds in which we have to answer the call and the minutes in which we have to be able to arrive, otherwise the person will die – severe injuries, heavy bleeding, unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, heart attacks and other life-threatening situations. Such calls are our priority, because the patient has no way to help himself, he cannot go to the pharmacy for medicine, to the doctor on duty or to the nearest trauma center. We need to do everything possible so that with the increase in the incidence of winter viruses, we both relieve the emergency phone from inappropriate calls and focus the teams on critical calls.
And in this, we will also need citizens’ understanding of the mission of the emergency service.”
Establishing an emergency mode in the service requires that emergency telephone dispatchers, upon receiving calls to lower priority situations, will invite residents to contact their family doctor’s practice, seek help at the nearest medical institution themselves, or inform about the waiting time of the brigade up to 4 hours, with the brigades being sent to for life-saving calls.
Lower priority situations are often associated with such situations as, for example, colds and respiratory viral infections, chronically high blood pressure, arm and leg injuries in which a person can move and get to the nearest medical facility with the help of others, etc.
If in the call the brigade determines that the situation is not urgent and advice, help should have been received at an outpatient clinic, an invoice for a paid service may also be issued (according to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, the fee for a call made by the brigade in non-urgent situations is 74.35 euros).
Also, in an emergency situation, the service will continue the work organization measures taken internally from the autumn standby mode to ensure operational efficiency, including the redeployment of brigades from points of lower intensity, the possibility for medics to work additional on-call at the expense of overtime work, etc.
“We invite you not to ignore your illness or a sudden health problem, but on the contrary – to always contact your doctor’s practice by phone as soon as possible,
but in cases of minor injuries, go to the nearest medical facility with the help of relatives or neighbors. The first call should be to the emergency services much less often. In this way, you will take care of your health and give the opportunity for service medics to reach people whose lives are in danger in time,” Cipule emphasizes, calling for active action and care for your health and that of your fellow human beings.
In order for patients and victims to receive timely help in life-critical situations, the NMPD repeatedly calls on residents not to use the emergency phone line in cases of colds and high temperatures, but to primarily contact their family doctor (https://www.nmpd.gov.lv/lv/jaunums/aicina – do not load the-arkarta-phone-line).
Information on all options for receiving medical assistance can be read on the website of the National Health Service in the section “Where to get medical assistance” (https://www.vmnvd.gov.lv/lv/kur-sanemt-medicinisko-palidzibu) or call the National Health Service on working days service information phone number 80001234.
