site.btaUnion of Bulgarian Medical Specialists Prepares Protest Demanding Better Working Conditions and Pay

On May 12 - International Nurses Day, the Union of Bulgarian Medical Specialists (UBMS) will organize a protest in front of the Ministry of Health starting at noon, said UBMS chair of the board Maya Ilieva during a round table on the problems of health care in Bulgaria.

“For me, May 12 is indeed not a holiday because we have not achieved much at the moment in terms of working conditions and pay,” she said.

Ilieva pointed out that the first thing they would want is a drastic increase in the salary of medical professionals. Ilieva proposes that it should be 150% of the national average wage. "Without medical specialists there can be no healthcare. This means that in order to bring back those who are abroad, to attract young people, we must not be working poor," the UBMS chairwoman said.

“No nurse is going to go to school for four years to then come out and work for minimum wage,” she said, adding that there should be good working conditions and very good pay.

According to her, a change in healthcare depends on the politicians, but medical professionals are also to blame for this situation. She stressed that the monthly schedule of nurses over the limit of overtime is a problem. "When there are no nurses we use health assistants, paramedics, students. We are aware that most of them are without medical education and yet no one reports," Ilieva said. According to her, very few reports of these irregularities come to the union.