site.btaOutgoing Health Minister: Reform in Health Care Is not Going to Happen Soon Due to Insufficient Funding

Sofia, August 4 (BTA) - The reform in the health care sector is not going to happen in the coming years, not even with a stable government, because there is not enough funding, outgoing Health Minister Tanya Andreeva told the press here Monday. She held a farewell news conference where she reported the highlights in her Ministry's work in the past 14 months.

Andreeva said that the systems of financing, management and control in Bulgarian health care badly need changes. Bulgaria needs accessibility and equality in health care, efficient maternity, child and school health services and funding using more sources other than the National Health Insurance Fund. 

In a separate development, the parliamentary budget committee approved conclusively an increase of the budget of the Health Insurance Fund by 225 million leva.

Andreeva further argued that the system of hospitals in Bulgaria needs restructuring because it has more hospital beds than Bulgaria needs and because some of these do not really function. Dwelling further on that, she said that hospitals will have to close down where they do not function but this can only happen at a stage when the country has stable ambulance service infrastructure.

Andreeva regrets not being able to convince the MPs that it is important to go ahead with the demonopolization of the National Health Insurance Fund. "With a more normal climate in society and a more stable Parliament, a lot more could have been done," she said.
 
Asked to give herself a mark for her performance, she said that she is usually to critical of herself and would give herself a lower mark than she deserves.
 
She said it is important that the caretaker Health Minister carries on the changes in health care and electronic health care.
 
The outgoing Minister also said that action has been taken to restore the ambulance service telephone number, 150, because in some cases the delayed reaction of the ambulance service is due to lack of qualified staff and slow response on the part of the single emergency line, 112, which has taken over the calls for medical emergencies.