site.btaHealth Ministry's Top Priority Until Year's End Is Construction of National Children's Hospital

A top priority of the Health Ministry until this year's end is the construction of a National Children's Hospital, outgoing Health Minister Hristo Hinkov said during the outgoing Government's report on its activity on Friday. The necessary agreement has been reached with the European Investment Bank, Hinkov added. In his words, healthcare is a cumbersome system in which changes take time and results come not immediately but after a period, during which the positive effects from what was set in the governance programme can be seen. 

Another priority of the Health Ministry is improvement of the transplantation model in Bulgaria. "This year, we are record-setters in donor situations and transplantation," he added.

The short-term measures directed at people are continuation of the digitalisation, broadening of the options for citizens to access their medical files, improvement of the system for tracking medicinal products as a means to limit the periodical shortage of medicine. The goal of reducing out-of-pocket patient payments [which Hinkov set at the start of his term in office] and increasing the reimbursement of medicinal products has been reached to some extent, he said.

"I am proud to have worked in a government that showed Bulgaria can be governed in an intelligent and dignified manner," Hinkov said.