Nurses in Bulgaria will receive pay rise

Nurses in Bulgaria will receive a pay rise within the 30 million BGN, which the government has allocated extra for the municipal and district hospitals. This was made clear on 28^th of February after a meeting of Health Minister Kiril Ananiev, the trade unions and the professional organization with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, on the eve of the national protest of the nurses, which was scheduled for 1st of March They insist on a starting salary of 1,120 BGN.

The trade unions and representatives of the preossional organisations distanced themselves from the protest organised in the social media networks. They announced that they supported the demands of the nurses, but the problems would not be solved with protests, but with dialogue between the parties.

Kiril Ananiev, Minister of Health: The protest was announced without informing the specialists about the budget of the respective healthcare establishments and hence the salaries they will receive this year. We find that in individual medical establishments, especially in smaller settlements, there is no information about the allocation of BGN 30 mln for the municipal and district hospitals, the majority of which is provided for increasing wages of employees.

Milka Vassileva, President of the Association of Healthcare Professionals: The protest is organised by a group of colleagues in Facebook. The Association of Healthcare Professionals does not organise this protest. We support the demands of our colleagues because these are our demands as well, but we do not organise protests. Dialogue is a means of solving problems. The street is not always well informed about what the state of the system is and what are the ways to achieve success.