Budget 2018 Envisages Additional 400 mln for Healthcare

More money for health is envisaged in the budget for next year. The National Health Insurance Fund will have additional 400 million BGN. Bulgaria’s health minister Nikolai Petrov told BNT breakfast show on 23^rd of October that it would be his responsibility to ensure the funds are spent rationally. He said the clinical paths will be reviewed. Changes in their funding are also planned.

Mandatory hospital stay and examinations included in clinical paths will be reviewed by experts. The goal is part of the activities to be transferred to outpatient care, the health minister explained.

Petrov said that the prices of clinical paths have not changed since 2006 and should change. They will include the work of doctors and nurses.

Hospitals are already preparing for the introduction of an electronic health record where the all patient papers will be uploaded, he said. His ambition is this eletronicd reocrd to become operational from the middle of 2018. Petrov said that all citizens would be obliged to take their code for access to the record from the health insurance fund.