General practitioners (GPs) from five other Bulgarian regions will join the actions of their colleagues from the first four regions who began protesting by closing their practices on Monday.

The protests began in Veliko Tarnovo, Kyustendil, Razgrad, and Yambol, with Sliven, Smolyan, Pernik, Pazardzhik and Lovech set to join on Tuesday.

By the end of the week, the protest will gradually spread to the entire territory of the country.

This was announced by the chairperson of the Association of general practitioners in Bulgaria, Dr. Lyubomir Kirov, who was in Razgrad on Monday to support his colleagues.

Another eight regions will follow suit on Wednesday and six more will join the protests on Thursday. A two-day protest is also scheduled to take place in the capital.

All 47 GPs from the region of Razgrad went on strike on Monday, with their protest in the next days to take place over two hours between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning and then between 15 and 16 o'clock in the afternoon.

GPs are protesting against the policies of the health ministry and the reforms proposed by Health Minister Petar Moskov.

In particular, GPs are discontent that out of the foreseen increase in funding dedicated to outside hospital healthcare, only BGN 2 M will be allocated to them.

They have also expressed opposition to the introduction of fingerprint identification at health facilities, which according to them would treat both patients and doctors as criminals.

On Monday, it became clear that the system will be first introduced at hospitals from the middle of this year, while its introduction at GP surgeries will be postponed until next year.

At the beginning of the protests, GPs assured that one crew at each practice will remain on duty to treat patients with acute need of medical care.

Municipal and private hospitals have expressed support for GPs, while emergency doctors have opposed such actions.