Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov is scheduled to hold talks with hospitals directors and representatives from emergency medical facilities nationwide in a bid to overcome a crisis of funding.

Borissov  will be accompanied by Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov and Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on January 5 2010.

The meeting will be held at the Health Ministry, and it will address envisaged reforms in the health care system. The head of the Bulgarian Doctors' Union, Dr Tsvetan Raichinov, stated that if doctors are not allocated their promised funding, it will be impossible for them to conduct operations normally and that patients will have to pay for every visit.

Reportedly, medical personnel have not received their salaries for November 2009, while hospitals only received about 30 per cent of the funding that was supposedly allocated for their operations, BNT said. Consequently, most hospital managers across Bulgaria have not paid their personnel in an attempt to keep themselves afloat.

Meanwhile, on the morning of January 5 2010, the Finance Ministry reportedly launched an account designated for the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) amounting to about 140.5 million leva, on the advice of Deputy Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov, Focus news agency said on January 5.

Supposedly, with the provided funds, the NHIF will be entrusted with meeting payments due to the medical establishment.