Medics from the only Paediatric Hospital in Bulgaria Demand Higher Pay and more Staff

After nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists, today the paediatricians go out to protest. The disaffected medics are from the only paediatric hospital in Bulgaria – the Specialised Hospital for Active Treatment of Children’s Diseases Prof. Dr. Ivan Mitev – which treats a large share of all hospitalised children in Bulgaria. The main reasons for their protest are the low pay and the shortage of nurses.
They also demand a special status for the hospital and the elimination of the admission limits for young patients. At a meeting in the health ministry yesterday, the minister promised a children’s hospital that would not be a private company and whose funding would not depend on the National Health Insurance Fund. It is expected to be built within 2 years.
“At the meeting we received some assurances the hospital would be financially stimulated, the limits imposed by the health fund would be partially dropped, but in the end we are supposed to wait for the bright future with the new paediatric hospital, and our request for a special status for the one we already have, which is expected to later merge into the new hospital, was not accepted,” Dr. Anton Vladimirov told bTV.
“The ministry has until the end of May before losing credibility with us, for us to see what the concrete steps will be. From then on, the staff will decide what to do. There is a risk that this hospital could not wait for the new one,” he warned.