Basic Cancer Drug Is Unavailable to Bulgarian Patients

Teodora Zaharieva (center foreground) has criticized the inadequate level of healthcare funding, which has led to the suspension of supplies of basic cancer medication. Photo by BGNES

Supplies of the drug Gemzar, which is used in the basic treatment of cancer cases, have been stopped in Bulgaria for two months because of a lack of funding, according to Teodora Zaharieva.

As Chair of the Bulgarian Center for Protection of Health Care Rights, Zaharieva has announced on Monday that she hopes the situation in healthcare funding will be improved in 2010, with fewer shortages of medicines for cancer patients.

She stated that she expected an additional BGN 70 M to be made available for healthcare from the newly-increased taxes on gambling.

"I hope that the shortage of medicines will be less because the promised funds, that we fully expect, will be significantly more; but everything depends on the implementation of the budget, as the cabinet also says."

"We hope that the crisis passes and that the money really goes to healthcare. If this does not happen, the shortage will be severe," Zaharieva explained, adding that they would seek also funding from European programs.

She was critical of the present system of funding: "The excuse for delaying the processes is that there is no money. In most cases, we say that even the money available is not properly distributed - I am specifically talking about healthcare, where quick actions must be taken and the budget must be monitored every month," she concluded, saying that she would continue to push for additional allocations of funds and medication.