Our young doctors are massively emigrating abroad in search of better-paid jobs. This leaves their older colleagues in hospitals. One such example is Milka Bogoeva. At nearly 90 years old, she continues to work. In her hometown of Dupnitsa, over 70% of the doctors in hospitals are of retirement age.
“Maybe it's in my genes, I don't know. I'm glad that at this age I can still manage”, she told Nova TV.
In Bulgaria, a third of all doctors are over retirement age. Without them, the system would collapse. Our country is among the fastest aging in the world — the demand for medical care is growing. But the state spends significantly less on healthcare than the European Union average. The country has the lowest minimum wage in the EU, and doctors sometimes earn only about a thousand euros a month. The hospital director, Stefan Nikolov, who is also over retirement age, has a hard time attracting new staff.
“We are on the edge. I can't bring a young doctor here with a salary of a thousand euros. Nobody is coming,” he said.
And while hospitals in remote areas struggle to find enough doctors to function, lecture halls at Bulgarian medical universities are overcrowded. Bulgaria has twice the EU average of medical graduates. The problem is that many of these students go abroad to work for higher salaries.
Last year, Vasilena-Kiara Dimitrova helped organize a national protest. Doctors and nurses demanded better pay and working conditions under the slogan “Future in Bulgaria”. The demonstrations led to promises of pay increases from the government, but the plans were frozen. And in late 2025, mass protests forced the cabinet to resign, leaving doctors and nurses across the country in limbo.
“Young doctors in Bulgaria are being put in a situation where they have to endure years of “slavery” before they can finally practice and earn money,” explained Vasilena-Kiara Dimitrova.