site.btaPM Borissov Hosts Meeting on Development of Children's Healthcare

106 ECONOMY- CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL - HEALTH MINISTER - MEETING Am

PM Borissov Hosts
Meeting on Development
of Children's Healthcare


Sofia, May 14 (BTA) - The Prof. Ivan Mitev Children's Hospital in Sofia will receive 1,700,000 leva, Health Minister Kiril Ananiev told journalists on Tuesday after a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and representatives of the pediatric hospital. The resources will be allocated under the mechanism of the Maternal and Child Health Programme, he specified.

On Wednesday, Ananiev will table a draft Cabinet decree with which the Health Ministry will provide an additional 500,000 leva for 15 devices for non-invasive respiratory reanimation and 750,000 leva for 50 isolettes. The equipment will be distributed among state and municipal hospitals.

Ananiev also said that a public procurement procedure will be launch by the end of May for the engineering of a new children's hospital in Sofia and its construction is expected to begin in early September.

Prof. Ivan Litvinenko from the Prof. Ivan Mitev Children's Hospital expressed satisfaction with Tuesday's meeting. He said that the tension has to a large extent diminished because all their demands have been heard.

Pediatricians have held several rounds of protests over the future of Bulgaria's only children's hospital. They demand abolition of medical treatment limits in children's healthcare, a change in the status of the Prof. Ivan Mitev Children's Hospital, and a pay raise.

On Monday, Health Minister Ananiev told journalists that the Prof. Ivan Mitev Children's Hospital will conclude an agreement with the Health Ministry on providing and covering the costs of emergency medical care. He was speaking after a meeting with representatives of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA).

Ananiev added that the prices of some clinical pathways will be increased, with the biggest focus being on pediatrics and pulmonology. The salaries of the hospital's personnel are planned to be increased using resources of the Health Ministry and the reserve of the NHIF.

The methods for calculating the salaries are ready but the BMA requested that the Health Ministry acquaint it with these so that the Association can give its position on the methods, Ananiev said. If the BMA proposes changes and these are relevant, the methods will be proposed to the Sectoral Council and then published, he added.

BMA head Ivan Madzharov said that his organization proposes an increase in the prices of six clinical pathways used mostly in municipal hospitals. The clinical pathways used mostly for children should be separate, and not the same as those for adults, he argued.

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