site.btaPolice Teams to Accompany Ambulances in All Areas with Registered Cases of Attacks against Medics

Police Teams to Accompany Ambulances in All Areas with Registered Cases of  Attacks against Medics


Sofia, December 10 (BTA) - Police teams will accompany
ambulances in all areas where cases of attacks against medics
have been registered, it was agreed at a meeting Wednesday
between Health Minister Peter Moskov and representatives of the
Roma communities.

Over the weekend, Moskov drew a mixed media reaction after
indicating that he could order emergency medical teams to stop
visiting neighbourhoods where such incidents occurred in the
past unless their security was provided by police, or unless
local opinion leaders agreed to take responsibility for their
neighbours' conduct.

Participating representatives of Roma organizations expressed a
wish that Roma mediators assist the medical teams in such
visits. The Roma organizations present at the meeting were
mainly such providing health and social services in the Roma
community.

A representative of the Roma organization World without Borders
from Stara Zagora, Southern Bulgaria, said that the idea is for
mediators, representatives of the regional health inspectorates
and other partners to accompany emergency medical teams going
into Roma neighbourhoods and make Roma respect medical teams.
The representative said that usually the attacks of doctors are
due to late arrival or absence of adequate care.

Moskov said that understanding has been achieved with the
representatives of the Roma NGOs. "In addition to the concrete
measures we defined, we also agreed that the quality of
emergency aid should improve, for which both structural and
financial measures will be planned. However, nothing can justify
any violence against doctors doing their job," Moskov said.

Kiril Vassilev, head of a steering committee from Sofia's
biggest Roma neighbourhood, said that an ambulance on duty
should be present in the neighbourhood at all times. The
ambulance team should have a Roma participant, or at least a
Roma driver who knows the neighbourhood, Vassilev suggested. The
representatives of the steering committee said they do not
approve of the idea for police to accompany medical teams.
Vassilev noted that the Minister is however right that in areas
with many alerts about attacks and where people call an
ambulance without a justified reason and then attack it, the
Bulgarian law should be complied with and police be present.
However, as no such cases have occurred in Sofia's biggest Roma
community, police presence there is "superfluous", he said.