Bulgarian doctors started industrial actions

2010-03-09

Bulgarian general practitioners have begun an industrial action on 8 March, due to delays in the payments owed to doctors by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). The amount over which the protest is held is the difference between regular patients' fees and pensioners' patients' fees paid in GP offices. In Bulgaria, the regular patients' fee is fixed at 1% of minimum wage, or BGN 2.40 (€1.23), while the rate for pensioners is BGN 1.00 (€0.51). The difference is to be reimbursed to GPs by the NHIF by the end of the subsequent month. At present, however, the GPs have not received the payments from the fourth quarter of 2009.
At the same time, medical professionals in Sofia, Plovdiv, Kyustendil, Shumen and Veliko Tarnovo have begun an industrial action against the government's healthcare reform. They are expected to be joined by more protesters throughout March 2010.