site.btaMerger of Emergency Aid Centres of Sofia, Sofia Region Is Threat to Patients, Doctors - Experts

Merger of Emergency Aid Centres of Sofia, Sofia Region Is Threat to Patients, Doctors - Experts

Sofia, August 24 (BTA) - The merger of Sofia's and Sofia
Region's emergency medical care centres is a threat both to
patients and doctors working there, said Dr Dessislava
Katalieva, head of the National Association of Emergency Medical
 Care Employees, at a BTA-hosted news conference Monday. The
news conference was prompted by the Health Ministry's
publication of a draft decree on structural changes in the
healthcare system that envisages a restructuring of the
Emergency Medical Care Centre - Sofia Region through its merger
with the centre in Sofia.
   
The Association disagrees with the Health Ministry's motives
that this merger will optimize the work and logistics of the
newly formed megacentre and will motivate those working in the
system.

According to the Association, the planned merger is in violation
 of the existing regulatory framework because it is not
envisaged in the already adopted Council of Ministers' Concept
for the Development of Emergency Medical Care in 2015-2020, and
in the draft of a new standard for emergency aid. The system for
 providing emergency medical care cannot sustain structural
changes before it gets stabilized in terms of organization and
cadres, which is not yet a fact but is planned in the Council of
 Ministers' Concept.  The merger is also in violation of the EU
recommendations for providing emergency medical care, the
Association argues.

At present, the regional coordination office of Sofia's
Emergency Medical Care Centre services 125,000 emergency calls a
 year and has difficulties with managing the incoming calls. It
is unclear why an impractically working coordination office
should be burdened with the servicing of  another 13 branches of
 Sofia Region's Emergency Medical Care Centre with over 20,000
emergency calls a year. It is also unclear where the additional
teams for the branches in Sofia Region will come from, the
Association said.

The Association recommends that the Health Ministry as soon as
possible open to a public discussion the draft standard for
emergency aid, and adhere to the commitments made in the Concept
 for the Development of Emergency Medical Care.

Katalieva specified that they do not want the Health Minister to
 resign but to fulfill the commitments in the Concept, and that
the draft standard be adopted.