site.btaBulgaria Opens First Stroke Centre at St. Anna Hospital in Sofia
Bulgaria’s first stroke centre has been opened at St. Anna University multi-profile hospital for active treatment in Sofia. The facility will treat patients with cerebrovascular diseases, primarily those affected by stroke.
At the opening ceremony on Tuesday, caretaker Health Minister Assoc. Prof. Michail Okoliyski said that similar centres are also planned at the Pirogov emergency hospital and Ivan Rilski hospital in Sofia.
Additional stroke centres will be established at St. George University Hospital in Plovdiv, Dr. Georgi Stranski University Hospital in Pleven, and St. Marina University Hospital in Varna.
More than EUR 100 million in funding for the centres is being provided under Bulgaria’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In addition, 17 other hospitals across the country will receive medical equipment and be connected to the six main stroke centres. According to the Ministry of Health, a digital platform will also be created to enable doctors to consult with one another in real time. The connected hospitals will include facilities in Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Dobrich, Kyustendil, Kardzhali, Montana, Pazardzhik, Ruse, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Gabrovo, Targovishte, Haskovo, and Shumen.
Okoliyski said that once the integrated system becomes fully operational, it will significantly improve public health, ensure timelier and coordinated care, uphold the “golden hour” standard, and apply the most advanced methods in stroke treatment.
Deputy Health Minister Petar Gribnev explained that thrombectomies will be carried out at the six main stroke centres, while thrombolysis procedures will be available at the other connected hospitals. He added that the remaining centres in Sofia and across the country are expected to open soon.
According to the hospital’s director, Dr. Slavcho Bliznakov, the stroke centre at St. Anna was initially established ten years ago, but it is now entering a new phase thanks to equipment financed through the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The hospital has received a modern 360-slice CT scanner, an MRI machine, and a biplane angiography system.
Bliznakov also stressed that the hospital has created a simulation centre to train doctors who will later perform stroke treatment procedures at the other stroke centres around the country.
Each year, St. Anna Hospital admits around 1,000 patients with ischemic stroke. Of these, approximately 300 are treated with thrombolysis and around 70 with thrombectomy, although the hospital has the capacity to handle twice as many cases.
/KK/
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