A protest of citizens in front of the Bulgarian Ministry of Health caused a brief tension in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia on Tuesday night. The discontent of the protesters was caused by the anti-epidemic measures adopted by this country’s cabinet. Demonstrators called these measures inadequate. In an interview for BNR, the leader of the left-wing political party ABV Rumen Petkov, whose representatives supported the civil rally, explained that the protest aims to present to the public evidence of the helplessness and the chaotic actions of the government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have arguments in this regard and they are hidden in our correspondence with the Ministry of Health. We asked them for a copy of the minutes of the sittings of the National Crisis Headquarters, as we demanded them from the coronavirus headquarters itself. We were told that such documentation was not kept. In other words, the National Crisis Headquarters proposed nothing to the government. This is a correspondence from the end of May, but this practice continues. It turned out that hotels, schools and shops are closed by decision of the Minister of Health and the cabinet, because the National Crisis Headquarters has not made any official proposals, or at least there is no written evidence of such proposals.”

ABV party also asked the institutions how many autopsies were made of Covid-19 diseased to determine the exact cause of death. However, this question was also left without answer.

As for the overcrowded hospitals and their inability to provide adequate care to every person in need, Rumen Petkov contends:

“In the very beginning of the pandemic we said that the authorities should work out instructions related to the admission of patients to hospitals- who must be admitted to hospital and when. However, no one paid attention to us. No such instructions have been enforced to this day, unlike in other European countries. Decisions are taken subjectively and people are rushing the hospitals, because of fear induced by the media. The inability of the health minister to prepare such instructions is detrimental to the society.”

The government wasted precious time to prepare the health system for the second wave of Covid-19, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Kornelia Ninova contends. In an interview for BNR, she pointed out that Bulgaria needs a plan to solve the problems in the healthcare system that have been accumulated for years and that the left-wing opposition party has already developed such a plan which consists of 4 proposals.

“Our first proposal envisages that people must be put at the centre of the system. People insured under the statutory health insurance scheme must have 24/7 access to free and timely medical care. People without health insurance must have access to a basic package of medical services paid by the state”

ABV and BSP insist that hospitals cannot function as commercial companies. That is why the plan of the Bulgarian Socialist Party envisages that hospitals will be able to use funding from the National Health Insurance Fund only if they change their status and no longer operate as commercial companies. On the other hand, the private hospitals can continue functioning as commercial companies, but will not have access to funding from NHIF.

Another proposal of BSP reads that VAT for medicines is reduced to 9%.

“Every Bulgarian needs this. Moreover, reduction of value added tax for medicines will definitely lead to lower prices, because the price of medicines is regulated, unlike in other sectors, where traders can make speculations”

Compiled by: Yoan Kolev

English version: Kostadin Atanasov