The Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev announced Monday that that the salaries of all medical staff in hospitals funded by the Health Ministry would go up 15%, and that the staff of Sofia's Emergency Health Center "N.I. Pirogov" would receive a 30%-pay raise.

Stanishev made the announcement after he visited Pirogov together with the Health Minister Evgeniy Zhelev and discussed the situation of the emergency hospital with its Director Prof. Dimitar Radenovski.

The whole staff of Pirogov is going to receive the increase with their April salaries on May 20.

In their tour around the center, Stanishev and Zhelev inspected the two emergency units, 105 and 108.

In the words of members of the Pirogov staff, the Prime Minister had declined the invitation to take a more extensive tour of the emergency health center and of the adjacent hospital, dariknews.bg reported.

The reason for the high-ranking visit to the emergency center is allegedly the readiness of Pirogov doctors and nurses to go on strike.

In the spring of 2007 the Pirogov staff staged daily protest rallies for three months demanding a 50%-pay raise and new medical equipment. The protest ended after a new Governing Board of the emergency center was elected by the doctors received on a 15%-increase of their salaries.

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