50% of Doctors Work in Bulgaria's 6 Biggest Cities

Health | January 5, 2014, Sunday // 16:04|  views

Photo by BGNES

Half of the doctors in Bulgaria work in the six biggest cities in the country, according to data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

Out of a total of 28 643 medical practitioners in 2012, a total of 5833 were Sofia-based.

In Plovdiv there are a total of 3126 doctors, Varna has 2139, Stara Zagora has 1398, Pleven has 1326, and Burgas has 1179.

The cities with the smallest numbers of doctors are Silistra, 314, Razgrad, 316, and Smolyan, 335, and some cities even lack certain types of specialists, like Vidin, which lacks urologists, Bulgarian daily Pressa informs.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Health hopes that the adoption of the National Health Map, which is to be ready by end-March, will solve the problem with the unequal distribution of medical practitioners across the country.

In order to achieve this, the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is to be permitted to choose which hospitals it will work with.

As a result of that, if somebody wants to open a private cardiology clinic in Sofia, the NHIF will be able to refuse to sign a contract with the unit.

However, if the medical facility is in a region which lacks specialists of this type, it will be entitled to use public resources.

Another problem in the sphere is the lack of interest in certain medical specialties.

For years on end, the specialities of surgery, gynecology and dermatology have attracted the highest number of students, with next to no candidates for the specialties of pathological anatomy , anaesthetics, intensive care and emergency medicine.

Bulgaria currently has only 80 pathologists, half of them in retirement age.

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Tags: National Statistic Institute, doctors, medical profession, hospitals, National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF)

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