Emergency Medical Care workers staged a national protest, demanding decent pay

On the Day of the Bulgarian Doctor, October 19, emergency medics in the country staged a protest. According to them, they are taking to the streets because of the tragic state of emergency medical care in the country.

Today's protest was a coincidence with the opening of the 48th National Assembly, it was not purposeful, said organisers from the national trade union "Protection". Emergency medical workers across the country are demanding a pay rise, a change in the categorisation of the work, an increase in night work pay, and food vouchers. Speaking in the BNT morning programme, the chairman of the National Trade Union "Protection" Krasimir Mitov described the working conditions in the emergency medical services as tragic.

"Wages have not been updated, this leads to a lack of teams, young people do not want to work, doctors are leaving the country and over 50% are at a very advanced retirement age," said Krasimir Mitov, chairman of the National Trade Union "Protection".

In his words, a big problem is coming as the country could be left without emergency medical care centres.

"We have come to express our dissatisfaction with the size of the wages and the working conditions. Our branch covers quite a large part of the territory of the municipality, which is also very large, we work over 1,000 metres above sea level, we cover five dam areas, forest territory," said Stefan Makhov, Batak branch of the medical emergency centre - Pazardzhik.

"We want decent pay, category of work and respect especially for emergency medics," added a doctor from Vratsa.

Tihomir Tsonev is a medical assistant at the Medical Emergency Centre - Plovdiv, Parvomay branch, with a basic salary of BGN 1,450. He arrives in Sofia directly after a night shift. He has been saving lives for three years. He admits that he has to work in two other places.

"A person who has studied for so many years and saves lives every day can't make ends meet. I'm a young person - I have a wife, I have a family, I live in a rental, we are almost like drifters. If we get enough income and everything is fine, I don't need to go and become a slave to another country," he says.

That's why medics are demanding wage increases, a change in job categorisation, increased pay for night work and food vouchers. Ambulance drivers from the Varna Medical Emergency Centre, who supported the protest, said that their salaries were increased by BGN 40 a month ago, and this is grossly insufficient.

"The work is under constant stress. We are on the front line at road accidents, with drug addicts, with mentally ill. We are always on the front line and we are not appreciated," says Krasimir Kapitanov, a driver at Varna Emergency Medical Centre.

We also want to raise the issue of vouchers, adds Galin Kalchev, also a driver at the Emergency Centre in Varna.

"We get a 24 BGN food voucher for the whole month, which I think is insulting," he said.

At the end of September, the Council of Ministers approved additional spending of nearly 10 million on the health ministry's budget for this year. With these funds, it was decided to compensate employees in emergency medical care centres across the country, and the idea is to thus achieve the level of salaries set in the collective agreement.

According to the ministry's preliminary estimates, compensation for doctors will be approximately BGN 600 per month, paramedics will receive BGN 400, nurses BGN 350, paramedics BGN 170, ambulance drivers around BGN 150. These additional funds were to be received from 1 October until the end of the year.