Young Doctors Protest: They Want Clarity on How Much Their Salaries Will Increase

Young doctors from the initiative “Future in Bulgaria” are staging yet another protest outside the Ministry of Health. The demonstration, held under the slogan “You won’t fool us”, is driven by frustration over the lack of clarity surrounding how their salaries will be calculated in the new budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

This is the seventh protest by the young medics in recent months. They say they have heard numerous political promises and several proposals on how funds for higher wages might be allocated. The NHIF draft budget has already passed its first reading in Parliament and earmarks €260 million for higher pay for young doctors and improved working conditions. How this money will actually reach them, however, remains unclear — the reason behind their chosen slogan: “You won’t fool us.”

“They throw these sums around and tell the public they’re for us, but they never explain how the money will actually reach us. And in the end, what will happen is that next year our colleagues will continue to receive these insulting salaries and will be asking: ‘Where is the money?’ It won’t get to us. It will again go to the hospital directors, and once again it will be up to them whether to distribute it to the people who actually do the work.”

“The option with the clinical pathways proposed in the new budget doesn’t work for us. No one knows where that money will go or for what purposes — it goes to the hospitals, and they can distribute it however they choose. That means young doctors have no clarity at all about whether anything will change, or how.”

“We want clearly defined, specific sums that doctors will receive based on their experience and the work they do in the hospital — because it is by no means insignificant.”

Today was the deadline for submitting further proposals ahead of the second reading of the NHIF budget. For now, the issue remains open.