GPs are no longer required to disclose their mobile phones to be called at any time. In the evenings and at weekends, patients will be able to call medical practices with which their GP has contracted. The limits also fall for the referrals for dispensary patients. These are the new proposals in the project for a national framework contract, on which the medical union has reached an agreement with the fund.

When she needs a doctor on the weekend, Pavlina Kulina asks her children to take her to the emergency rooms of the hospitals on duty in Plovdiv:

"It's a problem on Saturday and Sunday if a person needs a doctor to turn to."

Fortunately for Mrs. Karnobatlieva, her family doctor responded to her calls even on Easter, when the elderly woman had Covid:

"I even had to call two years ago - I called, she was in Russia, she had left, and she called again, despite this. Older people have constant pains and it was necessary... She always responded. "

With the draft for a new framework contract, GPs will be obliged to consult their patients only during working hours.

"It is no longer mandatory for the family doctor to give out their personal mobile number on which patients can call them at any time. But this is possible and will happen only with those doctors who have a contract with another medical structure that will take care of the patients in those hours when the doctor is not at work," said Dr. Kostadin Sotirov, Association of General Practitioners in Plovdiv.

For large cities, this will be easily feasible - in Plovdiv since 2000, most family doctors have concluded contracts with on-call practices. In smaller settlements, however, a 24-hour medical alternative is rare. Therefore, the draft for a new framework contract also eases the replacement regime in the absence of the GP.

"It will no longer have to be a GP specifically, it could be a doctor who works in a hospital, works somewhere else or in urgent care or in specialist care or is a specialist somewhere - i.e. any doctor who is legally competent" Dr. Kostadin Sotirov also said.

The limits for referrals for dispensary patients are also removed. They will be examined and checked by specialists as necessary according to the regulation on chronic diseases.

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