A moratorium on hospitals means death

When the executive is unable or unwilling to make reforms, the courts do, he says the former deputy prime minister and three-time health minister

On the occasion of GERB leader Boyko Borisov’s statement that they will lose Sofia in order to win it later, Ilko Semerdzhiev said: “I am not in the mood to accept losses, but this sentence contains the potential for diverse interpretation. I agree that taking a step back can serve as a reinforcement.”

On the imposition of a moratorium on new hospitals, he said it is not normal for those we have appointed to govern us to talk of death to us because that translates to the imposition of such a moratorium. “This is impotence in the management of the sector,” he said, recalling the March 1990 moratorium on foreign debt. “If we want to develop Bulgaria, we cannot do it with a moratorium in any sphere. That’s not how it’s done. If we want to develop it, we need purposeful policies and set specific goals, and these goals must be reached with the appropriate tools in the appropriate legally regulated manner”, said Semerdzhiev and repeated that such a moratorium means stopping life! When development is prohibited, there is no renewal, the investment process stops – there are no new activities, innovations in the most important social sector.

According to the expert, the determination of a National Health Card by May next year is another geographical snapshot that will not solve the problems in the health sector. “We are talking about beds, structures – they are not actors in the system. Actors are doctors, nurses, midwives, health care specialists. The hopes they place on such a health card from the Ministry of Health are absolutely pointless”, he is categorical.

Semerdzhiev is pessimistic about development in the field of healthcare during this management mandate, because “We are afraid of reforms”, he explained. It gave examples of evasion of responsibility and camouflaged launch of non-working initiatives.

“When the executive power cannot or does not want to make reforms, the court does them,” Semerdzhiev said regarding the case before the Constitutional Court for the unconstitutionality of the provision of Art. 55a, para. 2 of the Law on Health Insurance, which became the basis for lowering the estimated individual limits of hospitals by the financial bureaucracy for a number of years.

He called for a selective choice when the Fund concludes a contract with the contractors of medical assistance in the health system, but according to clear criteria – selection of the quality, capacity and need of the relevant settlement and region.

It is possible to talk about changing the health contribution, which has been 8% for many years, explained Semerdzhiev. Bulgaria is not only at the bottom in terms of total and child mortality in Europe, but also the prices of the clinical paths are the cheapest. In order to preserve and raise the quality and retain the staff, it naturally follows that the resource should increase.

According to him, the current Minister of Health, Hristo Hinkov, has wasted his mandate.