The only lung hospital in northeastern Bulgaria, the one in Varna, has finally lost its electricity due to unpaid bills. The debt to the local society is over BGN 80,000. The hospital was forced to release tuberculosis patients to their homes.
“There is a group of people in the Varna Municipality from the GERB party and 3-4 other people who joined them, who wanted and still want to close us down. The minister wrote a letter in which he agrees to close us down, but indicate where they will open another similar hospital. The issue of lack of electricity satisfies some people in Varna Municipality,” said Associate Professor Dr. Hristo Ganchev, director of the medical facility.
Assoc.Ganchev urgently wrote to the Ministry of Health. He asked the Minister of Health to give instructions on what the hospital management should do in this situation. The director of the medical facility described what was happening as “a failure of all humanity.”
According to him, people in nightgowns and pajamas cannot sit in the cold all day. And the Municipality of Varna pretended to be distracted and did not pay the electricity bill, also claims the Assoc Prof. Ganchev.
“I call them on the phone, but neither Portnih nor Balabanov answers me. We talked to Balabanov, but then he twisted my words and told reporters that we didn’t want to give even 100 BGN, on the contrary, we contributed 2,000 BGN, but they don’t want it. We already owe them BGN 92,000, and the longer the payment is delayed, the larger the amount becomes,” Prof. Ganchev explained on bTV.
30 people who came to work every day have not received salaries for more than 10 months, the hospital director also announced. He explained that he is not calm because the holidays are coming and these people have no income. The sick, numbering around 15 people, were released to their homes. However, they are contagious and the number of sick people is destined to increase after the holidays, explains the director.
“For 10 months we have neither advance nor salary. We cannot host holidays. Where is our country?” paramedic Stanka Nikolova rhetorically asks. She continues to go to work every day, even if there are no patients, because this is the only way to protect the hospital from vandalism. Drug addicts broke down doors and windows to look for drugs, the woman said.
The bTV team asked for a comment from Prof. Anelia Klisarova, chair of the Varna Municipal Council’s commission on health care.
“The situation is very serious and I hope that all the administration and all those responsible intervene anyway. The sick are at home, let’s hope in their conscience and responsibility, not to go out and infect others. For me, the solution I can propose, and that we have proposed to the municipality and the Ministry of Health, is to transfer the activity of the hospital to some other medical facility in the city of Varna or the Varna region,” said Prof. Klisarova.
He added that the committee he leads has two positive opinions on the initiation of payment to cover the obligations of the pulmonary hospital.
The professor. Ganchev, however, doesn’t think anything needs to change.
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