site.btaBulgaria's Nurses Ageing, Leaving Country

Bulgaria's Nurses Ageing, Leaving Country

Sofia, May 12 (BTA) - The average age of Bulgarian nurses now is 53 years, said here on Friday Milka Vassileva, who chairs the Bulgarian Association of Healthcare Professionals, on the occasion of International Nurses Day.

The State must take urgent measures aimed at keeping nurses in Bulgaria. Around 10,000 nurses and midwives have left the country in the past ten years, Vassileva said.

She voiced her concern that according to the collective agreement, signed across all health care establishments in the country, the starting monthly salary for a nurse should be 700 leva.

Answering a question about nurses' low pay and their leaving the country, Health Minister Nikolay Petrov told journalists that he has conferred with the chair of the Parliamentary Healthcare Committee, Daniela Daritkova, so that a meeting is organized during which the problems in the sector can be discussed and solutions sought as soon as possible.