Radio Bulgaria

In 2009 figures from Health Consumer Powerhouse, a European organization for analyses and information, Bulgaria is somewhere close to the bottom in Europe with regard to patient rights. This is rather worrying but does not come as a surprise given the constant tremors that have upset the healthcare system over the past 20 years. Current tensions in the system have been caused by the failure of the National Health Insurance Fund to transfer due sums to GPs. In the meantime, a new reform is underway in the sphere of hospital care including restructuring and shutdown of some provincial hospitals. Amid this situation patient rights are not very much in the limelight. Still, as EU member country, Bulgaria cannot afford neglecting them. Many dissatisfied patients have submitted their complaints directly to Ombudsman Ginyo Ganev. In turn he started a communications campaign for the promotion of the European Charter Patients’ Rights. The document was presented in some of the country’s biggest hospitals. One of them was the Military Medical Academy where with both patients and doctors attending, Ginyo Ganev urged the government to carry out the health reform with measure. According to him the current restructuring of hospitals threatens some basic patient rights – for free access to quality medical service and for free choice of a medical establishment for treatment.

“In the first place, timely, quality and accessible health services should be delivered to everybody. Only after this has been achieved, the closedown of some hospitals could proceed. It is necessary to make sure that hospitals offer to patients a minimum package of services – professional doctors plus equipment. A hospital that has failed to deliver this package cannot possibly claim any financing. This would add to the burden of the under-financed healthcare system and consequently, impair patient rights. The restructuring of hospitals as part of the healthcare reform should take place with a lot of caution, measure and responsibility to patients.”

The European Charter of Patients’ Rights regulates fourteen basic rules including access to health services, informed consent for treatment, free access to medical services etc. In Bulgaria the problems with patient rights cannot be properly fixed without enough medical standards. Negligence of doctor mistakes is obvious, while one of the patient rights laid down in the Charter is the right to competent healthcare. Another right that patients tend not to be aware of, is the right to prevention. It is a fact that although Bulgaria has been full member of the EU for quite some time now, a patient Rights Act has not been adopted yet. Three bills connected with it were submitted in the National Assembly in 2006. Under them patients are entitled to money compensations in case their health has been impaired following medical experiments, therapeutic or diagnostic procedures. The problems with patient rights in Bulgaria spring mostly from the monopoly of the National Health Insurance Fund, as well as from the difficulties in the dialogue between the Health Ministry, the NHIF and NGOs. A step in the improvement of this context is the establishment of the National Patients’ Organization with its top priority being observance of patient rights in this country.

English version Daniela Konstantinova