Unanimous with 185 votes “for“ The National Assembly adopted a decision obliging the Minister of Health to take the necessary actions to ensure the health care system with nurses. Importer is Lena Borislavova and people's representatives from "We continue the change - Democratic Bulgaria" (PP-DB), reported Nova TV.
According to the adopted decision, within two months, the minister must propose to the parliament a strategy for increasing the number of legally qualified nurses and midwives for the period up to 2030 by a minimum of 30%.
In the version proposed for discussion at a meeting of the Health Commission, this percentage was 50 percent.
Deputies adopted in the hall an editorial amendment made by Kostadin Angelov from GERB-SDS, which, according to him, guarantees that the salary of nurses and midwives cannot be lower than 90 percent of the average salary for the country.
The strategy envisages improving access to higher education and places for state procurement, state funding of student fees, dormitories and scholarships for students from the professional field “Health care” nurses and midwives, organized by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education information campaigns to increase the prestige of the profession “nurse” and “midwife”, jointly organized by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Science of information campaigns to stimulate the admission to higher medical schools and colleges of students in the professional field of “Health care” — nurses and midwives, additional and special encouragement of the acquisition of special knowledge and the status of a “pediatric nurse”, amendment of the current legislation in view of the right of the NHIF to directly finance medical facilities of health care specialists.
During the discussion, Margarita Mahaeva from “Vazrazhdane“ accused PP-DB of accepting this populist decision just before the elections.
„Due to your incompetent management, entire wards and hospitals were closed precisely because of a shortage of nurses, while you prepared various strategies. No one believes you for a long time, dear colleagues. Even Prof. Hinkov at the end of his term admitted to himself that he could not deal with this problem. We will support him, but I want it to be known - the nurses don't believe you,” said Mahaeva.
Lena Borislavova from the PP-DB, who submitted the decision, stated that “Bulgarian healthcare is seriously and chronically ill”.
„It suffers not only from the shortage of nurses and midwives, which is the subject of today's discussion, it suffers from systemic underfunding, low pay in all sectors, uneven distribution of medical professionals in the country, which means that part of people do not have access to quality healthcare, she explained.
In her words, there is also a lack of control over the spending of funds in the healthcare system.
„The poor quality of health care, along with corruption and low incomes, is one of the biggest problems of Bulgarians according to sociological research”, she pointed out.
Today, in this outgoing National Assembly, we have an opportunity to start solving at least one of these problems, Borislavova insisted. The Ministry of Health is already in the process of developing some of the measures that are foreseen in the strategy. These measures are enshrined as mandatory in the PVA adopted by the "Petkov" cabinet. I believe that this draft decision is a better step for upgrading the work, which is part of solving the problem of chronic lack of personnel in the system, said Lena Borislavova.
Dzhevdet Chakarov from the excluded and left DPS parliamentary group stated that they will support the submitted draft decision, fully sharing the reasons and arguments.
„We will support in view of the fact that the situation is really a crisis. At a university clinic where I work, the nursing schedule is barely covered. What we are doing at the moment is a consequence of the fact that we have allowed the crisis situation and now we have set out to solve the problems, Chakarov explained.
He again called for a strategic analysis, a planned intake for training in the education system. The situation with the provision of doctors is also serious. The average age is over 55, and general practitioners have a pensionable age, comments Chakarov. It is proper for the future to finally have a supra-party political consensus, to finally start the reform of the functioning of health care, the MP believes.
Krasimir Valchev from GERB-SDS raised the question of the commitment of the Ministry of Finance regarding the amount of remuneration.
„We can increase nursing intake, but it will not fill. The problem is not in the supply of education, but in the demand. The main factor to increase the demand for this education and this profession is to increase the minimum wages. The most important decision that can be taken is to guarantee the minimum wages, Valchev insisted.
Dr. Silvi Kirilov from “There is such a people” stated that the minimum wage issue is a financial one and the decision rests with the finance ministry.
„Hospitals as independent legal entities cannot solve this problem”, he added.
Krasimira Katincharova, non-member of the parliamentary group, a member of parliament from the collapsed group of “Velichie”, stated that it is not just about money. According to her, it is not enough to reveal more places, they must be filled with willing and truly motivated people.
„The profession of the nurse, which implies a high responsibility, must come out of the stereotype of a poorly paid executor of doctor's orders,”, she added. Katincharova stated that she would support the proposed draft decision.
Prof. Andrey Chorbanov from “There is such a people” commented that this is an extremely urgent problem that needs to be solved and that is why the draft decision was supported in committee. He pointed out that this problem is not from yesterday and asked why nothing has been done so far.
„Remunerations are decisive in terms of the possibility to stimulate these personnel”, Prof. Chorbanov insisted.
Kostadin Angelov from GERB-SDS stated that the PG of GERB-SDS will support this draft decision.
„This project will not solve the nursing problem. The current draft solution has a number of weaknesses. In Bulgaria, there is no problem with midwives. "Bulgaria is one of the countries in the EU that has enough midwives in all structures," he explained.
Angelov recalled that starting in 2020, the profession of nurse and related specialties included in the definition of health care professional has been declared a priority specialty, which gives the possibility of double scholarships to those entering this specialty.
„The time has come for a political consensus in the healthcare sector. It should become a national priority, Angelov pointed out.