Health officials under pressure: instead of funding, we were told to ‘optimise’

Despite Lithuania's National Public Health Center (NVSC) asking for more funding, the government has instead opted for cost-cutting efforts, according to the head of centre.

"This issue has been raised many times and we have approached it as recently as last year, when everything started in China,” Robertas Petraitis, head of NVSC, told BNS.

“Perhaps it was hard to realise then what workload would [be], but when I assumed this position in 2017, I already found a lack of funds," he added.

Due to a recent uptick in new cases, NVSC has been left unable to efficiently trace the spread of the infection. The centre has also faced staff shortages, brought about by employees who have resigned over low pay, immense public pressure, and unlimited working hours.

Medics attend to patient at Vilnius Santara Clinic | V. Balkūnas

"The government would [tell us to] optimise, increase productivity, efficiency, raise wages from the same funds,” he said.

According to Petraitis, only 594 out of 692 vacancies at the NVSC are currently filled. Another 98 could be employed this year, if funding was increased.

Lithuania's National Public Health Center (NVSC) | D. Umbraso / LRT nuotr.

The government has pledged allocating additional funding of 1 million euros next year, instead of the 4 million euros needed by the NVSC, said Petraitis.

With the existing capacity, the center is capable of tracing around 300 coronavirus cases per day. But with the daily number of infections exceeding 400 over the past several days, the centre has been faced with a backlog of more than 100 untraced cases per day.

Therefore, some 100 troops are also helping the center and it is undergoing internal reorganisation and training volunteers.

"Some European countries could not investigate all cases, inform and isolate people. One of the solutions is to use an app, which is what we plan to do soon. It's an app that would record closeness and based on that we could judge on contact," the NVSC director said.

Read more: Military to assist health officials as second wave hits Lithuania