Europe is currently trying to launch an unprecedented vaccination project, the essence of which could be one question: how to vaccinate as many citizens as possible quickly and more or less fairly in the absence of vaccines? Although we are trying to find an answer to this eternal question in our mornings in the mornings and evenings, it is not easy to get anywhere – vaccination campaigns and the somewhat smooth course of this whole process are problematic and challenge the stability of governments elsewhere. There is also no shortage of complaints about circumvention and other splendor. Ministers and governments are resigning, and, of course, this is a thankful time for all sorts of oppositionists, both those who have been seen and won the confidence of the electorate, and the various vague players who are still formulating their slogans.
It is clear that the general public is also tired, and although there is a glimmer of hope from time to time in the form of slightly more promising epidemiological indicators or reports that another vaccine has just been approved by the European Medicines Agency, “everything is bad!” shouters may turn out to be true. Everything can really be bad! Places are being identified where so-called large vaccination centers could then be set up, and, for example, there could be a total of fourteen in Riga: two large centers (the Ķīpsala exhibition hall is being discussed as one of the venues, but the final choice, as On Saturday learned at the Vaccination Project Office, not yet done) and 12 medium-sized vaccination centers, mostly planned in municipal schools. If there are vaccines, mass vaccination in Riga and the regions will be the biggest challenge for vaccinators (no matter what structure they are in at the moment).
There is a minister, there is an office
After the resignation was forced to resign, the Minister of Health Ilze Hänķele (A / P) was replaced by a party member of the party and until then the party associations. For development / About! Daniels Pavļuts, the leader of the Saeima faction, one of the first statements of the new minister was also about the need to create a separate office to ensure the vaccination process, giving employees significantly higher salaries than is usual in public administration.
Now, commenting on this step, Pavluts Saturday recalls that when he entered the Ministry on 7 January this year, there were no officials working solely on the vaccination project. There was a working group chaired by Sven Henkuzen, Director of the State Agency of Medicines, but the Minister reminded that Henkuzen also has other responsibilities – first of all, to lead the whole institution. It should also be emphasized that Henkuzen was one of those, according to whose recommendations Latvian officials have already missed opportunities to purchase additional Pfizer a Modern vaccines. In Pavluta’s opinion, an organization had to be created that would work only for and around vaccination.
“The idea was to set up such a project implementation unit, and it seemed that it should be done at the ministry level, because there was no responsibility at the ministry level at the time. I deeply believe that a project of this scale should be organized at the Prime Minister’s level and not just at the Ministry of Health. I did not have such an option – to create a management structure at the highest level – then I decided to create it where I would have at my disposal, “Pavluts now explains the need to create an office.
Rejects office failure
I would like to find out if and what could have been done differently to make the idea of the Vaccination Project Office successful, but the Minister repeatedly emphasizes that he cannot agree with the recent harsh criticism and the fact that the idea has not succeeded.
“I do not agree with that, and everything! There have been mistakes, undeniably, but it is too early to write off both the vaccination project as such and the implementation unit of this project in particular,” he says, recalling that there are results: most doctors have been vaccinated , 67% of the residents have received the first vaccine in social care centers, as well as the number of family doctors involved in the project has increased, with about 20% of the population in the senior age group over 70 being vaccinated. “We are making progress on all points,” the minister said.
However, the volume of various absences is progressing almost every day: here queuing does not really work, here vaccines have not been brought, here news about the side effects of a particular vaccine appears, and also, of course, misinformation thrives. The media have already reported that people in Latgale often admit that by choosing, for example, Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine.
In Pavluts’ opinion, the work with each of the target groups to be vaccinated should be assessed as a separate project, because the approach to the process differs. It is one thing to vaccinate doctors in hospitals, another approach is already needed for visits to social care institutions or for vaccination of seniors. Initially, the Vaccination Project Office received a lot of accusations that it had forgotten about sleeping seniors – how would people who could not go to the point of the process themselves be vaccinated? This is currently being fixed. And although the vaccination has almost been stopped this week, until additional safety recommendations are obtained for the most widely available in Latvia AstraZeneca vaccine, mass vaccination against Covid-19 is planned to start in April.
“The project is evolving, the office must also develop and grow. So the office must be closer to the field, closer to family doctors, service providers,” says Pavluts, adding that the idea that project management must change somehow has been in the air for the last time. a couple of weeks. Also because the organization of the already mentioned mass vaccination centers will require a larger number of people involved. However, the decision to reorganize was made a week ago, on Friday, informing the general public on Monday morning. Pavluts now says that, of course, it has also been affected by the wide wave of criticism and negation. Recall that the platform Manabalss.lv The collection of signatures for the liquidation of the Vaccination Project Office was started in 2006, and in a short time more than 18 thousand votes were actually collected.
It has now been decided that the full composition of the office will be part of the structure of the National Health Service (NSS). What will happen to the high wages that have given rise to the wider debate? The Ministry of Health explains that the exact remuneration is not yet known, various legal aspects are also clarified, but it should be included in the unified remuneration system. However, this does not prevent employees from being assessed with bonuses, which the Minister, when explaining the reorganization of the office, also allowed when talking about this issue in the LTV program 1 : 1. It is very likely that, in the end, the remuneration of the current office staff could thus be maintained at the current level.
In addition to collecting signatures, Pavluts also mentions assault in the Cabinet of Ministers. Tensions have also appeared in the coalition, and then the office can serve as a lightning conductor. Probably someone, after hearing about the reorganization of the Vaccination Project Office, shouted: “Liquidate, ura!” But slower over the bridge. First, it no longer looks definitively after liquidation. Reorganization in this situation is also a way to reduce tensions, but it should be noted that it can also be seen as an opportunity to spread responsibility for failures by removing it from “someone bad”. However, failures, failures and mistakes in the process will probably not go away, and they will not be lacking in the future.
“There was a perception problem. Namely, not only the public or journalists, but also people in government and industry had the idea that, where there is a super office, then we can relax. Obviously it is not. The whole industry has to work on such a project. ! ” Saturday Minister of Range. “Here we have to catch our own stereotypes and mistakes of thinking:” Oh, where are the culprits, those responsible! “First, you can dredge, blame everything, chuckle, and second, you must demand the result,” adds Pavluts. According to him, the shooting required too much resources for the office. Now the ministry will write all kinds of official letters. “If they [Vakcinācijas projekta birojs] I was forced to unsubscribe and give explanations, then the project was not implemented at that time, and I had one specific purpose: to get them out of the shooting, “the Minister of Health justifies his decision, adding that he is now ready to be the only culprit.
The driver avoids
Eva Juhņēvičs, Head of the Vaccination Project Office Saturday can’t be invited to a conversation. It must be said that it fits into the kind of recent communication of the common office: initially Juhņēviča was ready to explain everything to everyone, and even in situations when the answers to specific questions were not really clear yet, but lately in the field of public communication one can observe her protection. Instead, the project communication manager Ieva Stūre sends a written explanation of Juhņēvičs, which was also sent to other media. In it, Juhņēviča emphasizes that she joined the office “for only one reason: I saw that my 25 years of professional experience gained in organizing and running large-scale events can be useful in developing the vaccination process to help the country and the population return to normal life as soon as possible. rhythm. “
She also emphasized that much had been done so far and highlighted what had been achieved – vaccinations had been launched, various larger and smaller works had been developed – and recalled that none of this had been done on 22 January, when the office opened. The Communication also hopes that integration with NSAs could strengthen the project’s objectives. Questions which could and should have been organized differently and to which she could nevertheless agree from a critical point of view, are not answered in the communication. In the end, it seems that, given the existing stylistics, all that was missing was the phrase: “Hello to the fight!”
Experts say that some employees of the office feel disappointed, but Minister Pavluts has previously told the media that Juhņēvičs’ work on the project is continuing. And the initial bitterness of possible supplements is reduced.
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