Bulgaria Blue Coalition Demands Swift Healthcare Reforms

Martin Dimitrov, co-chair of the Blue Coalition said in a media statement that Bulgaria's Health Minister needs to hurry with reforms if she wants to keep the support of his party group. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's right-wing Blue Coalition will retract its support for the Bulgarian Health Minister, Anna-Maria Borisova, if she fails to quickly implement reforms in the sector.

“We are prepared to give Borisova political support only after results from the changes planned become visible,” declared Thursday the co-chair of the Blue Coalition, Martin Dimitrov.

Borisova, members of the Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and representatives of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) met Thursday to discuss the 14 urgent anti-crisis health reform measures that the two Blue coalition party groups have proposed.

The anti-crisis package, which was put for discussion, includes putting a value to medicinal services, adopting common criteria for service quality, issuing national and regional health cards by the end of 2010, implementing serious structural reforms in the drug distribution sector.

Borisova and the Blue coalition party members are reported to have agreed on a deadline for the fulfillment of the commitments that the Ministry has made.

Borisova explained Thursday that that the number of functioning hospitals in Bulgaria will be decreased from 400 to 130, yet the Ministry will not close down any of the existing medical establishments in the country.

Bulgaria's health minister said that the remaining 270 medical units will be restructured into post-treatment centers or centers for continuous medical care.

Borisova also pointed out that the Ministry will work on a new, clear-cut methodology for determining the salaries of medical staff in Bulgaria. Some of the criteria will be the level of difficulty of the work as well as the qualifications and degree held.