Bulgaria has lost half of Its nurses, Health Minister said in Pernik
Article published from BTA on 2008-11-30 12:00:00Category: Health in Pernik
Pernik, November 28 (BTA): The number of nurses in Bulgaria has been halved for the past ten years, Health Minister Evgeni Zhelev said here Friday. In 1998 there were 70,000 of them and now they are only 35,000. The Minister believes that nurses should be assigned grades according to nature of work, skills and others, which includes improving their qualification and offering them opportunities to enroll in master programmes.
With the free movement of people in the EU, it is hard to keep the nurses in Bulgaria, said the Health Minister. He said that measures are being taken to improve the working conditions for nurses and added that some hospitals have started to offer their nursing staff "very high incomes" and "real decent living standards".
The current doctor-nurse ratio in Bulgaria is 1-1 while the best medical practice requires a 1-2 ratio, said Dr Bozhidar Nanev of the Varna chapter of the Bulgarian Medical Associations. Nurses - as well as doctors - are emigrating to other countries in large numbers and even when they take housekeeping jobs they make 700-800 euro per month against a Bulgarian wage of 300-400 leva (1 euro is roughly equal to 2 leva.)
According to Dr Nanev, the problem is getting worse with time as fewer nurses graduate the nursery colleges. He said that in general, fewer people are taking up medicine.
The Health Minister said that there is a will to increase the incomes of medical professionals but that requires increased resources for the National Health Insurance Fund.
According to an Open Society poll made public in early November, about 50 per cent of Bulgarians believe that they can afford less quality medical services now than five years ago. As many fear that they will be unable to buy medicines in the coming few years. According to Open Society Executive Director Georgi Stoichev, the poor marks people give to the health system reflect the lack of reforms.
Nearly 6 billion leva are needed to modernize hospitals in Bulgaria and this is 70 times more than the national budget for capital expenditures, said economist Georgi Angelov.
With the free movement of people in the EU, it is hard to keep the nurses in Bulgaria, said the Health Minister. He said that measures are being taken to improve the working conditions for nurses and added that some hospitals have started to offer their nursing staff "very high incomes" and "real decent living standards".
The current doctor-nurse ratio in Bulgaria is 1-1 while the best medical practice requires a 1-2 ratio, said Dr Bozhidar Nanev of the Varna chapter of the Bulgarian Medical Associations. Nurses - as well as doctors - are emigrating to other countries in large numbers and even when they take housekeeping jobs they make 700-800 euro per month against a Bulgarian wage of 300-400 leva (1 euro is roughly equal to 2 leva.)
According to Dr Nanev, the problem is getting worse with time as fewer nurses graduate the nursery colleges. He said that in general, fewer people are taking up medicine.
The Health Minister said that there is a will to increase the incomes of medical professionals but that requires increased resources for the National Health Insurance Fund.
According to an Open Society poll made public in early November, about 50 per cent of Bulgarians believe that they can afford less quality medical services now than five years ago. As many fear that they will be unable to buy medicines in the coming few years. According to Open Society Executive Director Georgi Stoichev, the poor marks people give to the health system reflect the lack of reforms.
Nearly 6 billion leva are needed to modernize hospitals in Bulgaria and this is 70 times more than the national budget for capital expenditures, said economist Georgi Angelov.
