site.btaHealth Minister, PM, Deputy PM Decide to Hold Off Competitions for Hospital Directors

Health Minister Hristo Hinkov said that he had conversations with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov and Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel in connection with the announced competitions for directors of medical institutions, and the three of them united around the reason that holding competitions at this moment could be laden with negative insinuations of biased appointments given the Minister's decision to vacate his post during the upcoming rotation, said the Ministry of Health press service.

Guided by the principle of full transparency and equality between candidates in the implementation of personnel policy in health care, it was decided to announce the competitions again, but in stages and with a longer deadline for submitting the necessary documents. The competitions refer to medical facilities whose current management bodies have expired mandates, added the press service.

Earlier on Monday, Minister Hinkov said on the air of bTV that he stopped the competitions at the request of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, in order not to leave the impression that he was appointing hospital directors before vacating the post.

Prime Minister Denkov commented in the Council of Ministers that when a minister has announced their departure from their post, the question is whether they should be handling personnel matters.