The Ministry of Health announced that it accepts the resignation of the director of the SBALDB “Prof. Dr. Ivan Mitev“ Dr. Blagomir Zdravkov. Dr. Maria Ekimova-Peneva will be the interim executive director, the ministry also said.
Dr. Blagomir Zdravkov said that he submitted his resignation to the minister, “not because I do not have the strength, but because I refuse to be part of an environment in which administrative pressure and endless inspections replace the meaning of medicine and turn work into survival“.
The Ministry of Health's statement also states that the ministry categorically rejects suggestions of institutional pressure exerted on any medical institution. The inspections carried out by the competent authorities are a standard tool for ensuring the lawful spending of public funds and the quality of medical activities in all state medical institutions, the principal of which is the Ministry of Health, according to the press center of the department.
The Ministry of Health also writes: "For the period from the beginning of 2025 to the present, two inspections have been carried out by the "Internal Audit" Unit at the Ministry of Health. The first is from 23.09.2025, and the second from 29.01.2026. For the same period, according to information from the IAMN (Executive Agency "Medical Supervision"), seven inspections were carried out in the hospital, three of which were based on signals and complaints, two were based on prosecutorial decrees, one was in connection with a referral based on media publications and one was based on a letter received from the SBALDB itself, regarding the death of a patient.
In 2026, two more inspections were carried out based on complaints to the IAMN, and one of which was also subject to a decree from the Prosecutor's Office. Within the framework of its legal powers, in 2025, the Sofia Regional Health Inspectorate carried out one comprehensive inspection, three inspections based on signals and thirteen, which concern only cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis in patients and are carried out according to the procedure for registering infectious diseases. Since the beginning of 2026, three more such inspections for Acute Flaccid Paralysis have been carried out.
These actions are part of the usual control mechanism in the healthcare system and do not represent an extraordinary or targeted practice towards a specific medical facility or its management."
"The Ministry of Health is aware of the challenges facing children's healthcare and categorically defends the position that this is a topic that should not become a field for suggestions, conflicts and political declarations," the press center also writes.