Bulgaria's Emergency Care Centers to Be Integrated into District Hospitals

Health | November 3, 2011, Thursday // 15:37|  views

Photo by Darik News

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said that Emergency Care Centers must become units of district hospitals, although the step will cause 1300 people to lose their jobs.

Speaking at Thursday's opening of a dialysis center and a toxicology clinic at the Pirogov Hospital in Sofia, Borisov insisted that the "parasitic structures" must be eliminated because they required double the necessary administration.

Bulgaria has a total of 28 Emergency Care Centers, one in each district, with 198 branches.

The units have a total headcount of 6887 at present, the job places being 7113.

Borisov gave assurances to all directors of major hospitals that Emergency Care Centers had to be attached to district hospitals in an attempt to cut administrative costs and free up resources for wage hikes.

He also made it clear that the restructuring would be carried out with money from the state budget and would not entail budget cuts for emergency care.

Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov echoed Borisov's opinion, adding that the state was currently making double payments to both emergency units of hospitals and to Emergency Care Centers.

He said that, once the practice was eliminated, incomes of emergency care personnel would rise due to the administrative savings.

Several days ago, the Health Ministry reported a 20% reduction in patient flow through emergency departments and an 8% decline in outpatient check-ups at these units.

The reason for the downward trend is that an average 41 000 people per month prefer to visit their General Practitioners on duty.

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Tags: emergency aid, emergency department, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, health minister, Stefan Konstantinov, healthcare reform, Pirogov

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