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President Radev: 'Regional hospitals are the backbone of Bulgarian health-care system'

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The "Bulgarian Christmas" charitable initiative, which helps the medical treatment of children, started in the old Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo, where the medics met the head of state and the health minister, together they sought solutions to essential issues, writes Teriza Pertrov.

The "Bulgarian Christmas" charity campaign has been taking place for twenty years. Its first patron was the socialist president Georgi Parvanov (with a mandate of 2002-2012), then the initiative was continued by the presidents Rosen Plevneliev (from the GERB right-wing party) and Rumen Radev (independent - with the support of socialists and part of the centrist parties). The initiative aims to support children's healthcare and the supply of medical facilities in Bulgaria with life-saving equipment, especially for children's wards. The essence of the campaign is the sending of charitable donation SMSs, but it includes not only state institutions, but also famous Bulgarian actors, musicians, singers, showmen. Thus, annually, children's health care in Bulgaria receives an additional million euros, and in the last year the aid was a record - about 3 million BGN or 1.5 million euros!

The beginning of the jubilee twentieth edition of "Bulgarian Christmas" was given symbolically in the old Bulgarian capital (from the 12th-14th centuries) of Veliko Tarnovo, which is also one of the most beautiful and rich in archaeological excavations Bulgarian towns. The occasion is also a worthy history of the Regional Hospital in Veliko Tarnovo - MBAL (Multifunctional Hospital for Active Treatment) of "Dr. Stefan Cherkezov", which has over 150 years of history and is older than the modern Bulgarian state, founded in 1879. The hospital in Veliko Tarnovo is named after one of the worthy Bulgarian national heroes - a young doctor who lost his life rescuing and providing first aid to nearly 50 people from a burning bus in the Veliko Tarnovo Region back in 1962. This symbolic connection in saving human life was also the occasion for the president of Bulgaria should choose as the starting point of its "Bulgarian Christmas" campaign precisely the Hospital in Veliko Tarnovo - bearing the tradition of saving human life and the old Bulgarian history.

At the event, President Rumen Radev was accompanied by his wife Mrs Desislava Radeva, by officials such as the Minister of Health Dr. Asen Medzidiev, who before his nomination to the government was a doctor in the busiest Bulgarian emergency hospital, by the regional governor, by the mayor of Veliko Tarnovo, as well as accompanied by heads the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria, members of parliament, local authorities and famous doctors supporting charity in favor of children's healthcare.

Despite the times of crisis, the situation was filled with optimism and causes - children's health is a cause that, even in the most difficult times, can unite politicians from different parties, institutions, and professionals in the field of health care.

After the grand opening of the "Bulgarian Christmas" charity initiative, the executive director of the Veliko Tarnovo hospital, Dr. Krasimir Popov, who was the symbolic host of the event, organized a meeting where he and his team shared with the president, the minister and the local government, the issues, which he encounters on a daily basis.

“As President Rumen Radev said during the official launch of the charity initiative, regional hospitals are the backbone of Bulgarian healthcare system. As such, they shouldered the brunt of the Covid pandemic and handled it with dignity, delivering the necessary health care to those in need despite limited resources and capacity. Many of the colleagues after this crisis oriented themselves towards Private Hospitals, where the intensity of work is less, the predictability of the work process better, in view of the scheduling of admissions and the absence of emergency patients and very severe clinical cases. The reduced number of patients, the emergence of new hospital structures in the area and the obligation to maintain social services, such as Forensic Medicine, Department of Transfusion Hematology, Department of Infectious Diseases, Emergency Department, Pathoanatomy, medical Disability Commission (TELK), which are financially unprofitable, puts us in unequal positions and threatens our financial survival''. This was what was shared by the executive director of “Dr. Stefan Cherkezov” MBAL (Multifunctional Hospital for Active Treatment), Dr. Popov.

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He noted that those working in a regional hospital are the first people to respond to emergencies - after accidents, disasters, accidents, etc. their responsibility is undeniably great, burnout syndrome is common among them "Every single medic here is valuable, and any poor funding and staffing deficit multiply each other and a vicious circle is obtained from which it is impossible to get out without external aid,'' explained Dr. Popov. He pointed out that there is chronic underfunding on the part of the state and requested the Ministry of Health to create a permanent mechanism for systematic financing of these activities. "Medics from the regional hospitals are counting on this happening, because at the moment this money is allocated from our budget. I hope that there will be constructiveness in the health care system, with the hope that the state of regional hospitals will improve and that doctors will receive the remuneration they deserve.

The head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Dr. Sibila Marinova, based on her experience as a regional donation coordinator for the North Central Region, asked for the restoration of the Transplantation Executive Agency. According to her, currently those in need of a transplant either die or, in order to survive, become health emigrants, due to the low, almost non-existent number of realized donor situations, i.e. transplants. Dr. Sibila Marinova raised the question of Ordinance 13/06.12.2021, which regulates the reimbursement of costs and the relative share of labor funds for transplant activities. She pointed out that Art. 14 point 2 inserts Art. 21 of TBSTCA /Transplantation of Body systems, Tissues and Cells Act/ as a condition for payment of the activity and it should be removed.

"Doctors practicing in the children's department feel the need for nurses with a pediatric profile," reported the head of the children's department, Dr. Valentin Tochkov. According to him, the state should move the procedure for the construction of a children's hospital as quickly as possible. Dr. Valentin Tochkov gave a request for the low prices of the children's clinical paths and valuation of the doctor's work.

"Despite the transparency of public procurement for the supply of consumables, they lead to the fact that we are forced to treat with consumables that are at the lowest price, but at the same time they are of poor quality," emphasized the head of the vascular surgery department Dr. Luboslav Shkvarla.

In the meeting of the doctors from Veliko Tarnovo with the president and the minister, leading healthcare specialists in the field also were present: the deputy director of the Hospital, Dr. Galina Gareva, Dr. Nikolen Stoinov, Dr. Sibila Marinova, Dr. Nikolay Moynov, Dr. Kina Nikolova, Dr. Valentin Tochkov, Dr. Benov, Dr. Lyuboslav Shkvarla, Dr. Todor Tobakov, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Stoykov – all of them as physicians who daily encounter pain and tragedy, but also successfully fighting such issues to bring back the lives of their patients – many of whom are children.

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