€40,000 Salary per Month: Heads of State Hospitals Earn More Than Senior Government Officials

The Ministry of Health is preparing changes to the rules governing the remuneration of hospital directors. Some heads of state-owned healthcare facilities receive higher salaries than senior officials in government, Health Minister Katya Ivkova said on June 12.

The Health Minister stated that the head of Lozenets Hospital received remuneration exceeding €40,000, while the director of the hospital in Blagoevgrad received around €36,000.

The director of Pirogov Hospital received over €10,000 in January and €12,000 in March.

The remuneration of the director of Alexandrovska Hospital is reported at over €8,000 per month, a similar level to the head of Sveta Ekaterina Hospital.

The director of Sv. Naum Hospital reportedly received over €8,000 in January and over €10,000 in March. The head of the Sofia Infectious Diseases Hospital Prof. Ivan Kirov Infectious Diseases Hospital received around €14,000, while the director of Maichin Dom Hospital received approximately €10,000 per month.

Katya Ivkova, Minister of Health:

“The methodology for determining remuneration for participation in the boards of directors of state-owned commercial enterprises will also be reviewed, in order to avoid situations in which healthcare institutions that are in relatively poor financial condition pay unjustifiably high remuneration to members of their boards of directors.

In some cases, the combined amount reaches between €6,000 and €8,000. By that I mean the total of salary plus remuneration for serving on a board of directors. In some instances, this combined remuneration exceeds that of the supervising authority — in this case, the Minister of Health.”