Things depend solely on good financing. You can't catch monkeys with bran. It is very simple to say “here we will do this“. It is normal for not only me, but also many of my young colleagues to leave Bulgaria simply because this work here is nightmarishly catastrophically undervalued. This was said in the program “This Sunday“ on bTV by vascular surgeon Dr. Nikolay Bikov.
He is among the heroes in white who choose abroad. He left for Germany 13 years ago precisely because of the low pay. While in Bulgaria, he worked in a state hospital and in two other places.
“I couldn't feed my family here. At the moment when my family broke up because there was no way I could provide for a family of three without taking money under the table“, said Dr. Bikov.
It is a crime for a young specialist who graduated from university last year to receive a 1,000 leva salary or not to receive any at all, he believes.
“Very few people in Bulgaria realize that nowhere in the Hippocratic Oath is it written that we should not take money from our patients. And given that a surgeon with 25 years of experience in a university hospital in Bulgaria receives less than a public transport driver – "This is just a mockery," the vascular surgeon said.
According to him, in Germany the difference in the salary of a doctor with a specialty in a state and private hospital is between 200 and 300 euros.
“Speaking of a salary of 8,000 euros, 300 euros is absolutely nothing“, he added.
Dr. Bikov explained that if a patient is refused admission to a hospital in Germany, sanctions and even dismissals may result.
“In 2010, when I was also working in the Emergency Department, I had a patient with an acute blockage of a vessel in his leg. By virtue of the distribution of emergency duty hours, there was a table according to which I had to take this patient for admission to a reputable large private hospital. At the moment the patient is treated and placed in a ward, an hour and a half later we receive a call at the emergency room "This patient is not for us, find him another hospital" because he does not have the financial means to pay for his treatment in the private hospital, the doctor recalls.
The dispatcher has to look for a place in one of the other hospitals with vascular surgery departments, where the patient can be transferred and treated under state healthcare.
According to Dr. Bikov, a regulated increase in funding should be introduced in our country, treatment opportunities in state and private hospitals should be equalized, diagnostic-related groups and adequate organization should be introduced.