site.btaProtest Demands Resignation of Director of Sofia's Pirogov Emergency Hospital, Immediate Reforms in Pediatric Healthcare

Citizens, including representatives of the Danaya Foundation, gathered for a protest in front of the Council of Ministers building here on Friday.

The demands of the protesters are for the removal of the director of Sofia's Pirogov Emergency Hospital until the completion of all inspections in the hospital related to the death of 15-year-old Danaya Kuleva, for violations in the management and medical activities, as well as immediate reforms in pediatric health care.

Residents of the cities of Varna, Plovdiv, Ruse and The Hague (the Netherlands) were also protesting at the same time.

The protesters will demand a statement from the Central Committee for Professional Ethics of the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) on the actions and statements made during Pirogov Hospital's medical council on February 1, which are described as damaging for all medical professionals.

Mediapool recently quoted a doctor from Pirogov as having said during the hospital's medical council on February 1 that "Everything must be done so these people can feel the pain." He was allegedly referring to the Danaya Foundation.

For months now, the hospital has been the subject of scrutiny and in the midst of a scandal surrounding the death of 15-year-old Danaya Kuleva last year, with the girl's mother Anni Stoyanova accusing Pirogov of a number of mistakes made in her treatment. The hospital denies any culpability and on several occasions heads of different units had announced their readiness to go on strike and collectively resign over the public pressure surrounding the case.

According to the co-founder of Danaya Foundation, Kremena Kuneva, the doctor who claims that "they should feel the pain" is the former director of Pirogov, Prof. Assen Baltov. Kuneva and the girl's mother Anni Stoyanova perceive these words as a threat.

Maria Petrova, a medical law lawyer, also claims to have received a threat over the case. According to Petrova, after she commented on Facebook on Valya Ahchieva's revelations about Danaya's case, an acquaintance of hers from a large hospital called her to inform her that she had been included in a black list being drawn up by the managements of the large hospitals in Sofia, according to which people like her and their relatives would be denied access to the hospitals, Mediapool reported.

At the beginning of this week, the newly established civil initiative "Danaya for Life" organized a petition with six demands for immediate reforms in pediatric healthcare.

A couple of days ago, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office announced that pre-trial proceedings had been initiated into the Danaya case. The prosecutor's office is investigating the period from April 28 to May 9 last year, when the girl's death occurred.

According to the protesters, politics has no place in hospitals, so they want to introduce a mechanism for publicity, transparency and public control of the procedures for the election of hospital management. Another part of their demands is for a complete overhaul of what is happening in the sector and a commitment to establish a health care reform programme that puts the patient at the center with the goal of treatment based on quality rather than quantity and administrative formalism.

Kremena Kuneva, said that this protest is not against doctors, it is for them, because, in her words, they are crushed by this system. "We are not here to demand the resignation of the ministers, but of the Pirogov Hospital's Director, he must take responsibility for what happened," Kuneva said. In her words, they know much more than media, but all this is in the documents that will be submitted to court.