About 500 Bulgarian doctors leave the country every year, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andrey Kehayov, Chair of the Bulgarian Doctor Association, in an interview with Focus News Agency on Bulgarian Doctor’s Day. More than 5,000 doctors have left Bulgaria for the last 10 years to work in other EU countries. “We have to do what’s necessary to keep them in Bulgaria and bring back many of them, as the system is facing a very difficult situation in respect of human resources,” he said, adding that the state had invested in those specialists.

According to him, Bulgaria needs a strategy to keep doctors after investing in their education. It should be a priority strategy in order to prevent a doctor shortage, given that most doctors in the country are over 50 years old. “This trend is getting worse, which implies a crisis in human resources […] Even today specialisation is not planned properly, young doctors are not supported. The reasons are complex. So the development of the profession lies in doctors’ professional qualification and their development means more state commitments,” said Assoc. Prof. Kehayov.

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