The Ministry of Health wants nearly 1 billion leva for the construction of the National Multidisciplinary Children's Hospital. This was stated by the leader of "We Continue the Change" Asen Vassilev to journalists on July 12, 2025.
"It is difficult for me to say whether it is a little or a lot. The question is that the story of the National Children's Hospital begins in 1978, when construction began and it is still standing in the construction of the Alexandrovska Hospital. Since then, we have not found the strength, means and political sense to build this hospital. One building has been erected and frozen, and now we probably will not be able to demolish it in the next 50 years. It went through different stages - 2004 was the year in which the decision was made to take a loan from an Austrian bank, after which the parliament decided that this loan was unprofitable", said former Health Minister Dr. Mimi Vitkova in the studio of "Denyat ON AIR".
In her words, there is always a reason and an excuse for this not to happen.
"In recent years, we have seen an increase in the desire to have a National Children's Hospital, the question is whether we will have one, or will we be blown away in the coming years. The politicians must answer us about the high price - why they ordered it. The European Investment Bank was assigned to do the project, Bulgaria cannot prepare a project to build a hospital. It sounds ridiculous, offensive and humiliating to us as Bulgarians. And when the European Investment Bank does not find a company to prepare the technical project, it works with European prices for everything," Vitkova added on the air of Bulgaria ON AIR.
She recalled that the prices include equipment and construction.
"The one who comes up with the figures for 1 billion must answer the question of who and how ordered this project. It must be reworked into its Bulgarian version, with Bulgarian prices in terms of construction. Probably the equipment will hardly lead to a significant reduction in the price, but at least the construction. I do not know how much money will go to demolish the building I mentioned. The problem is that even if we build such a hospital, how will it be organized in terms of personnel potential. As far as I follow the information, about 300 doctors and twice as many nurses are needed, which we do not have. What will the state put in this hospital - beds, without staff?", asked the former Minister of Health.
Vitkova is categorical that the shortage of staff in our country is "tragic".
"These days, information came out from European structures that Bulgaria is already in first place in terms of the number of hospital beds per 100,000 people, followed by Germany, which was in first place for years. Who needs this? Continuous construction of new and new hospitals - absolutely unnecessary in certain regions. This leads to a deficit of finances where they are needed. The idea was that money follows the patient, and with us the money follows the hospital beds. We have allowed entire regions of the country to be deprived of medical care, entire profiles of medicine have been closed and liquidated", commented the guest.
Mimi Vitkova is of the opinion that residents are not wanted in these hospital bases because "they draw from their "salary" Fund.
"That is why there are disparities, in the same hospital facility, which is a base for specialization, some doctors receive 50-60 thousand leva, and residents receive less than 1000 leva. There are probably higher salaries for residents, but after colleagues produced their salary slips, I cannot help but believe them that there are such low salaries. The state is delaying the solution to this problem. We see what parliamentarians are doing and we see the frequent changes of governments. Problems are being solved piecemeal. Since when have nurses been protesting? "For more than a decade, we have left them on minimum wage and we wonder why they are gone, why they fled to Europe," she added.
Vitkova concluded that medicine is not for everyone.