We cannot expect a budget that is adopted almost at the end of the year to lay new foundations for reform. This was stated in the program “The Day Live” on Nova News by the deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Union, Dr. Ivan Madzharov, in a comment on the health budget. According to him, the budget is so late that it will rather formalize the expenses incurred so far during the year.
”We expect the budget to include mechanisms that will increase objective control over the funds spent”, he pointed out and emphasized that it is necessary to clarify the processes in order to be able to claim that there is a real deficit. “When we establish that there is a real deficit in Bulgarian healthcare, then we will easily be able to admit to society that the money is insufficient”, said Madzharov.
”Every day thousands of nurses and doctors work, whose salaries are low and they constantly hear that the money is sufficient. And on the other hand, it is not clear how their salaries will increase if the money is sufficient. This is a kind of vicious circle. On the one hand, we say that the salaries of healthcare workers should be increased, on the other hand, we say that there is money, but a reform should be made”, he also commented.
He also commented on the way in which medical work is valued in the price of clinical pathways. ”At the moment, the price of the clinical pathway includes the work of hospital workers. Another issue is that in some hospitals, in order to pay the labor of doctors, nurses and orderlies, more than 90% of the value of the patients who have passed through goes to them, in other hospitals it is more efficient and no more than 40 to 50% of the hospital's income goes to them. And at the moment we have nothing else to pay the salaries with, except for the money from the clinical pathways,” said Madzharov.