Reform of the emergency medical care does not go smoothly

The National Audit Office of Lithuania evaluated the provision of emergency medical care in Lithuania. Summarizing audit results the Auditor General Ms Rasa Budbergytė pointed out that organization of emergency medical care in Lithuania is not enough efficient; most of the planned reform works are constantly delayed; some funds allocated to updating of a car park were not used reasonably. According to Ms Budbergytė, it is very relevant to faster develop emergency medical care system, since these services are vital, and a lot of funds are spent to pay for them. Annually almost every fourth citizen of Lithuania calls ambulance. In 2007 a little over LTL 115 million were allocated to payment for these services from the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund. One call of an ambulance team costed over LTL 150.

Audit report states that emergency medical care institutions provide half of the services which are paid for from the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund not following indications for provision of the emergency medical care set down by the Ministry of Health. Major part of calls are made not due to accute illnesses or accidents, but due to health disorders, which should be treated by general practitioners. The underlying reason for this is that there is no consistency among provisions of legislation regulating organization, provision, and payment for medical services.

In 2007 the Ministry procured 123 ambulances. In the opinion of the auditors, the use of some funds allocated to procurement of vehicles was not rational. 96 computers were built into the vehicles; however, not being ready for that, majority of emergency medical care institutions do not use them. Costs of computers and software totalled to over LTL 3 million. Auditors made a comparison of prices of new analogous ambulances procured by the Ministry and emergency medical care institutions. It was detected that medical care institutions paid at least 20 per cent lower prices for vehicles buying them themselves than when the vehicles were bought by the Ministry.


Full report is available in Lithuanian: Organization of the emergency medical care