site.btaHealth Minister: It Is yet to Be Decided whether to Re-Establish Independent Transplant Agency

It is yet to be decided whether to re-establish an independent transplant agency, said Minister of Health Silvi Kirilov during a Q&A session with the parliamentary Committee on Health here on Thursday.

Kirillov said: "We have gained experience both with an independent transplant agency and in the current united version [where the agency has merged with another one]. We have discussed the topic in the Ministry of Health, but we have not yet made a decision." The number of employees of the agency has been reduced to a minimum, while there is a serious amount of activity that needs to be carried out, which requires an increase in the staff.

According to the Minister, while there were advantages in the potential separation between transplants and supervision, this depended on the ability to increase staffing. An analysis is being carried out to determine the next steps, Kirilov added.

Executive Agency Medical Supervision is a secondary budget authorising body under the Minister of Health. It is the successor of the Executive Agency for Transplantation and the authority responsible for the management, coordination and control of transplantation in Bulgaria in accordance with the Organ, Tissue and Cell Transplantation Act.