Bulgarian Health Minister: Patients Are Top Priority

Society » HEALTH | November 13, 2011, Sunday // 13:47
Bulgarian Health Minister: Patients Matter More than ER Doctors: Bulgarian Health Minister: Patients Are Top Priority Bulgaria's Health Minister, Stefan Konstantinov, labels budget 2012 as a "budget of the possible." Photo by BGNES

To think that emergency care ends with ambulances is absurd; it continues inside hospitals, says Bulgaria's Health Minister, Stefan Konstantinov.

Konstantinov, who spoke Sunday for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, stressed that emergency care has been debated a lot during the year and explained emergency doctors suffer from financial and organizational problems. The Health Ministry has proposed for discussion to all interested parties a package of measures to solve these problems.

"There are different opinions, and reforms depend on the balance between all parties, but at the end the priority is how the patient feels more secure and better protected," the Minister pointed out.

According to Konstantinov, budget 2012 is a "budget of the possible." He stated that he would be happier with a larger budget, but on the backdrop of the Eurozone crisis, keeping the level of 2011 funding could be seen as a small success.

"This budget has more funding for hospitals, because money for oncology, hemodialysis, and cancer medications are being transferred to them. It does not deprive both specialist and general practitioners; it would reduce long lines for getting prescriptions," the Minister said.

Konstantinov further pointed at the "shrinking" of administration in the health care sector with cancelations of 2 000 job positions in the last two years, realized mainly through mergers of regional health inspectorates and regional health centers.

The Minister vowed that hospitals' income and conditions would not go down and worsen.

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Tags: budget 2012, hospitals, reform, healthcare, Stefan Konstantinov, health minister, emergency doctors, emergency care

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