Future doctor Kalina Alexandrova to FACT: We continue with the protests because we don't want to get used to it

A bill has been presented by young doctors on how to make sure there is enough money for them. It's about priorities in the healthcare system. What do young doctors expect… Kalina Alexandrova, a third-year student at the Medical University of Sofia, spoke to FACT.

- Ms. Alexandrova, 86.4% of Bulgarians support the protests of young doctors and medical specialists. People understand you, but is there anyone to hear you…
- People understand us because everyone lives in this broken system - they have been patients, they have lost loved ones, they have waited in line for hours in front of the offices, they have seen the despair in the emergency rooms, the fatigue in the eyes of the staff. We have public support.
But people's understanding is not enough when the government turns a deaf ear - and at the same time the deputies vote for their 15,000 leva salaries. When in a parliamentary hall instead of support, young doctors receive three and a half hours of criticism and edification. Because they did not write the bill properly, when this is not their job at all. The truth is that they hear us very well. They simply do not like how it sounds. And that is why they do everything possible to make us shut up.

- The payment of young doctors is not a problem that has been around for years. But what makes you continue with the protests now?
- We continue with the protests because we do not want to get used to it. We continue because the system will not stop crushing us and the caravan will move on if our heads are bowed. The truth is actually very simple - we continue because, if we remain silent now, tomorrow there will be no one to restore your mother's pulse. There will be no one to hold your hand while they fight for your child's life at 3 am. There will be no one to open the door to the emergency room for you while you are desperately knocking on it. This is not a protest for money. This is an attempt not to turn off the light in the hospital room when you need it the most. This is a protest for the future in Bulgaria.

- 3000 leva for a driver in the public transport in Sofia, and how much does a young doctor survive on...
- With will, hope and pennies. If he gets anything at all - because in many places, residents work as volunteers, as if we are not doctors, but some enthusiasts. And then comes the question - how come the public transport driver gets 3000 leva to drive a bus, and the doctor in the emergency room - 1000 leva to save your life when your heart stops beating?! There is no such social model anywhere in the world.
I'm not saying that the driver's work is unimportant. I'm saying that the life of a patient in intensive care weighs a little more than whether the trip will go according to schedule. Sofia without buses for a few days - people will order taxis or work from home. But Sofia without emergency medical personnel? Hospitals without doctors? If they close even for a day, thousands will not wait until the morning. This is not just an inconvenience. This is a human tragedy.
However, the mentality of the Bulgarian is also to blame. One hundred leva for a manicure? No problem. Two hundred leva for a hairdresser? Immediately! If the doctor asks for that much for an examination - that's it, he is greedy, impudent. Because “doctors shouldn't ask for money, they are called“. Isn't it absurd that the price of cosmetic procedures that are done every 2-3 weeks should be higher than a check-up with a specialist that you visit once a year? And it is expected that it should be free?

- A contrast is being created between professions. Is there a more important and less important profession?
- No, there is no more important profession. But there is a more responsible one. There is highly and low-skilled labor. And it is time for someone to say it clearly. In your opinion, is it normal for a doctor to fight for 2,000 leva, while at the same time billboards are everywhere for a starting salary of 2,500 leva as a cashier in a supermarket?!
We doctors study for 10 years. And then we have to constantly specialize our whole lives. We pay thousands for education. We work endless shifts, without sleep, without rest, without security, incentive and future, while we wonder how to pay for our accommodation, electricity and water. In some places, we even pay to be enrolled in a specialization. I just want to ask - in 6 months many people can acquire a bus driving license, but how many people choose to study for 10 years to become doctors? And then our parents still support us at 30+ years old, because in Bulgaria medicine is not a profession, but an expensive hobby. Only in Bulgaria can a doner kebab maker earn more than an anesthesiologist who holds the lives of ten people in his hands every shift. This is ridiculous.

- Nurses also want more money, and the budget in the healthcare sector grows every year. Why is there no money?
- The money is there. But not for those who prop up the system on their backs. 10 billion leva is in the healthcare budget, but there is still nothing for decent salaries, no repairs to hospitals, no new buildings. Only skeletons - like that unfinished multi-profile hospital in Sofia, which has been standing for years as a symbol of empty promises. And in the meantime, we have 22,000 nurses in the country, over 50% of whom are over 55 years old. I don't know if people realize it, but this is a time bomb. And young nurses don't come, because for 1,000 leva, who exactly would want to work on the verge of mental and physical collapse? The truth is simple: money doesn't melt - it just sinks. It sinks into schemes, paths and someone's pockets. And in the end, they say again: "there are no funds for salaries". How convenient. The most important thing in the system is people. But without these people there is no healthcare. And a country without healthcare… has no future.

- What is the problem from your perspective as a young doctor…
- It is not just about salaries. It is not just about the lack of nurses, conditions, or a future. The problem is in the entire system, in which a young doctor enters with a flame in his eyes and leaves with shadows under them. You start at 18 with tears of joy that you have been accepted to medicine. For six years you swallow textbooks with over 1000 pages, while your peers are already building careers, have children, a home, and security. You go to lectures during the day, and at night you work as a caregiver to "guard" a possible place for specialization, the next day you are back at lectures. Second contract. Third contract. You don't know if and where they'll take you as a resident, because as they say there aren't enough doctors, in the end it turns out there aren't enough places, especially for some specialties. And finally the coveted specialization - with miserable pay, 24-hour shifts until you're exhausted, in which you make decisions about the lives of our grandparents, mothers and fathers. And yet - you put on the white coat with dignity. Because you know that someone's life depends on you. People expect you to be superhuman - not to make mistakes, not to get tired, not to ask for a better life. And when you talk about it - they tell you: "But aren't you a doctor because of your calling?" Yes, the calling is there. But it doesn't pay the rent. It doesn't buy food. It won't give you back the youth in which you gave up everything else to save other people's lives.

- What does a young doctor want? What does he need?
- Quite simple things - normal conditions, humane treatment and a chance. A chance to stay and have a future here, in Bulgaria. He wants not to have to choose between duty and dinner. Not to be ashamed that at 30 he still lives with his parents, because with a residency salary he can't pay the rent. Not to look with anxiety at the hospital where he works, as if it were the set of some post-apocalyptic film - falling plaster, crumbling walls, outdated equipment and cold corridors, where the footsteps of the few remaining echo. The young doctor wants respect and decent pay. He wants security, so that he doesn't have to choose between duty and survival every morning. And most of all - he wants the country that trained him not to chase him away. When I started studying medicine, I was firmly determined that I would not go abroad to specialize. Now, however, after being confronted with the reality of the broken healthcare system, I ask myself every day what keeps me here. This is exactly what we are fighting for - to make it make sense to stay.

- How close is a young doctor to Terminal 2. The market for doctors in the EU is open…
- Very close. One salary away. One refusal to specialize. One mocking comment from a person who has never stepped foot on a night shift in a hospital, but otherwise writes regulations. A few impudent politicians. Foreign countries do not wait for us with a red carpet. But they accept us with respect and offer us training, development and decent pay. And then someone like Toshko Yordanov will say that if young doctors want more money, "they should go work in a village in Sicily and come back here happy". I wonder - how much longer will those who stayed last? How much longer will we keep repeating that this is a calling, when the calling in Bulgaria is paid worse than a night shift in a doner kebab shop? Until this changes, we will remain the country where the smartest people leave. And the rest will have to wait their turn at the last remaining specialist within a radius of 100 km. And one day we will not ask: "How close is the young doctor to Terminal 2?". We will ask ourselves: "Are there any young doctors left at all?"