Category: The Media About Us

65% from graduating nurses do not flow into the Bulgarian healthcare

Professional organizations of health care professionals insist on a decent remuneration

Three organizations of health care professionals signed an Agreement on common actions to protect their professional interests.

An open letter with their requests will be sent today to the President of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister from the caretaker cabinet and the President.

In it, they insist on working solutions to a deepening personnel crisis in healthcare.

The main problems, according to Milka Vassileva, President of BAPZG, Lilyana Petrova, President of BAPF and Alexander Alexandrov, President of BASAF, are the lack of dialogue with the institutions and the audibility of their problems, decision-making for the "development" of their professions without hearing representatives of our professions, the lack of a clear and working formula for understanding postgraduate education, the lack of a comprehensive approach to solving the personnel crisis, including decent pay and preserving our professional authority, the worrying trend of lack of health and pharmaceutical care in the problem regions.

35,000 are the health care professionals in Bulgaria - among them nurses, medical assistants, paramedics.

Of the 55,000 nurses in 1992, there are now 22,820, with one in three nurses of retirement age. Each of them works in 2-3 jobs, if necessary, we will fight a war for our regulated professions, Milka Vasileva said during the discussion on "Protection of professions and patient health".

At the meeting, they insisted on a unified standard of how many health care professionals should work in a Clinic or Department.

65% of the graduating nurses do not merge into the Bulgarian healthcare - one part go to work abroad, another part work not in the specialty, but only a small part work on it, it became clear at the discussion.

A huge problem is the impossibility of postgraduate training of these staff, which is why there is no interest from young people to train in these professions, explained Alexander Alexandrov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Union of Medical Assistants and Paramedics. Only BGN 1500 is the salary of a doctor's assistant in the Pediatric Department in a large hospital, Aleksandrov gave as an example.

According to him, for 7 years in our country 6 universities train medical assistants, and from there they graduate 20 people a year, who are actually the young people in this profession. These are the former paramedics in our country, which, however, has been closed before and there is a gap of 15 years in which such cadres have not been trained.

Currently, we have a total of 2,000 medical assistants in the country, said Alexander Alexandrov.

Aleksandrov also pointed out that, together with the other two professional organizations, they will defend the rights of medical assistants and paramedics. In the face of medical assistants, the state has hidden potential for a better future of the health system, and medical assistants would have a serious place in schools.

4000 are assistant pharmacists in our country, but for our problems there is also a lack of constructive dialogue with the institutions, pointed out Lilyana Petrova, President of the Bulgarian Association of Assistant Pharmacists. They insist on the possibility of consulting patients in the pharmacy when buying over-the-counter medications.

Professional organizations of health care professionals insist on a decent remuneration based on mandatory Rules for the work of health care professionals, compliance with the National Code of Ethics and Rules of Good Medical Practice.

For the time being, the Collective Agreement for 2025 in the healthcare sector has not been signed, and these specialists are missing at all in this CLA, it became clear at the discussion.

Dissatisfaction with the situation is felt in our guilds, which leads not only to the departure of experienced and long-term staff, but also to a permanent reduction in the number of people willing to train and work in our professions. The legislative vacuum related to the role of our professions in the healthcare sector causes harm for which we from the Bulgarian Association of Health Care Professionals, the Bulgarian Association of Assistant Pharmacists and the Bulgarian Union of Medical Assistants and Paramedics cannot remain indifferent.

We are convinced that the most valuable thing in healthcare is the staff and we are determined to protect our professions, as well as in the interest of our patients, together to seek a path to a positive and lasting solution to the crisis. We are asking you to hold a joint meeting with you to present the specific problems of our professions, possible solutions and proposals for legislative changes, taking into account our professional experience and good European practices for the adequate integration of our professions in healthcare, write to the authorities of the three organizations.

You can read the news on BNR via the button below.

BNR

Half of the hospitals in the country should be closed if health care standards related to the necessary personnel are met.

Because of this problem, three of the professional organizations issued an open letter to the executive branch.

It calls for urgent measures to solve the personnel crisis, and in addition to nurses, there is a shortage of medical assistants. Currently, there are more than 2,000 people across the country, and only 150 graduates per year.

Ivan Georgiev is one of the few remaining paramedics in the country. He works in the Emergency Service in Ruse, where the shortage of staff is increasing.

"We are not enough numbers, it is necessary to take emergency duty to cover the teams," said Ivan Georgiev, a medical paramedic in Emergency Services - Ruse.

There is also a lack of staff in hospitals. And the use of medical assistants has proven ineffective.

"If you are given a case, you may come across a situation where one nurse is alone on duty and one doctor of both wards, as well as one nurse of two wards, which is absurd," said Tatyana Atanasova, a nurse.

"A doctor anesthesiologist can serve five, six, ten rooms in which surgery is performed, with each patient being cared for by a doctor's assistant. That is, in this way they can be integrated into the Bulgarian healthcare system and not only that. They can also be integrated into the emergency departments of the hospital itself," added Alexander Alexandrov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Association (BSLAF).

They can also be used more rationally in schools where medical staff are lacking. For four years now, Desislava has been confronted with the ordinance, which limits her skills as a medical assistant.

"A child with an allergy, with an acute allergic reaction, starting with urticaria, can literally lead to an emergency in five minutes, which ends fatally. I, sitting with the ampoule in my pocket, do not have the right to perform manipulation in my office, as I have been appointed as a medical specialist," said Desislava Tsenova, a doctor's assistant.

Including as a principal, I've also experienced a death at school, so they happen. There are emergency situations. There needs to be adequate medical care, not just health care as it is now," said Danko Kalapish, director of the 107th Khan Krum Primary School.

As the medical crisis deepens, one in three nurses is of retirement age and works in several places.

"At the moment one doctor responds zero whole and ninety-five nurses. If this does not change, in the next three to five years about 10,000 nurses will drop out of the system, which means that there is no one to care for the patients," said Milka Vasileva, chairman of BAPZG.

According to alarming statistics, there are now nearly 22,000 nurses in Bulgaria compared to over 55,000 30 years ago.

You can see the news and the report on BNT via the button below.

BNT

The managements of the Bulgarian Association of Health Care Professionals (BAPHG), the Bulgarian Association of Assistant Pharmacists (BAPF) and the Bulgarian Union of Medical Assistants and Paramedics (BULAF) insisted at the National Press Club of BTA on the regulation of their professions, as well as on urgent measures to solve the problems with the personnel crisis. With these unifying ideas, the three organizations signed an agreement uniting in defense of the professions they represent and express readiness for joint action against isolation, inequality in contacts with institutions and against the long-standing lack of adequate and workable solutions in healthcare to solve the personnel crisis, said Lilyana Petrova, Chairman of BAPF.

The number of health care professionals is 35 thousand, said Milka Vasileva, Chairman of the BAPZGB. According to her, 22,820 of them are nurses and in the next few years a third of the current workers will be of retirement age. Bulgarian healthcare is collapsing, and nurses, midwives and rehabilitators are rescuing the system by working in several places, she added. The professional organization has prepared the normative documents related to the regulation of the profession of health care professionals. At the moment, the rules, in her words, are not clear, and therefore with the two organizations we will fight not a fight, but a war for the regulation of our professions, for their protection, for clear rules, for the opportunity to work in the best possible way, Vassileva added. Young people are not motivated to train as nurses, as in many medical institutions the starting salary indicated in the Collective Agreement has not been reached. According to her, about 65% of graduate nurses do not remain in the healthcare system.

Our main problems are related to the lack of constructive dialogue with the institutions and audibility for our problems, making decisions for us without our hearing, lack of a clear formula for postgraduate training, the destruction of the professional authority of our profession, said Petrova. In such an environment, there can be no expectation that there will be people willing to practice these professions. In the words and solutions to the alarming trend of the personnel crisis are late. There is a legislative vacuum related to the role of professions in healthcare, Petrova said.

The medical assistants are the heirs of the paramedics, recalled Alexander Alexandrov - Chairman of the Bulgarian Medical Association, pointed out that together with the other two professional organizations they will defend the rights of the medical assistants and the paramedics. In the face of medical assistants, the state has hidden potential for a better future of the health system, he said, pointing out that medical assistants would have a serious place in schools.

The organizations will send an open letter today to the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the National Assembly, in which they demand a meeting with them.

You can see the news in BTA and a video report from the press conference via the button below.

BTA