Over 1 million Bulgarians have been hospitalized since the beginning of the year, 49% of whom were admitted to the emergency departments.

Of those, only 25,000 of the patients needed a surgery, or another treatment in the emergency care unit, data released by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) shows.

“This means that the other 450,000 Bulgarians did not need to be hospitalized,” head of the NHIF Rumyana Todorova said as quoted by Pressa Daily.

Most often patients were admitted to the hospital for rehabilitation of musculoskeletal system diseases or for acute heart failure.A total of 102,000 people have spent at least five days in a hospital with such complaints.

The National Health Insurance Fund will suggest stricter regulations for hospital admission to the next government. The idea is to clearly define the symptoms for which a patient can be admitted for treatment.

"The other thing that must be done is to engage the primary healthcare units more. Many procedures and even minor operations can be performed in those units,” Todorova said.

"It is not the same for the NHIF to pay BGN 19 for a procedure in the primary healthcare or BGN 600 for the same procedure in a hospital," she stressed.