Health Ministry proposes EUR 1,550 monthly pay for state-funded resident doctors

Bulgaria's Health Ministry has drafted an ordinance proposing that resident physicians in state-funded specialist training programmes be paid EUR 1,550 a month, Health Minister Katya Ivkova told reporters on Tuesday 20 October, BTA reported.

The announcement came on the day of a protest by young doctors outside the ministry building in Sofia. Ivkova said she had been in dialogue with young doctors since the start of her term and respected their right to protest, describing their demands as just. She said work was under way on raising their salaries, but added that she hoped their energy would not be used for political purposes.

According to Dnevnik, the proposed pay applies only to residents training under state-funded places. Medical graduates in Bulgaria can specialise in three ways: through a state-funded place, by paying for the training themselves, or under a three-party contract with a hospital. The protesters called for decent pay and reform of the system, and in particular for clearer and more transparent access to state-funded residency places, with competitions based on clear criteria that give candidates equal chances.

Pay and training conditions for young doctors are closely linked to the wider question of staffing in Bulgarian hospitals. Specialist training determines how many cardiologists, anaesthetists, paediatricians and other specialists the system will have in the coming years, and whether newly qualified doctors decide to stay in the country.

For private and public hospitals, a fixed pay level for state-funded residents would also affect budgets and recruitment plans, because residents make up a significant part of the workforce on many wards. The ordinance is a draft and still has to go through public consultation before it can take effect.

The next steps to watch are the publication of the draft for consultation and the responses of hospital managers, medical associations and the young doctors who organised the protest.