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Sat, May 26 2012
Bulgarian nurses head abroad for better pay
Photo: Assen Tonev
The crisis in the Bulgarian medical sector is deepening with more qualified personnel leaving the country because of low wages and poor working conditions.
Current rates suggest that about a thousand nurses leave the country every year to work abroad. As a consequence, the number of qualified health-care professionals in Bulgaria has halved and continues to decrease, the private television channel bTV reported on May 10 2011.
Favourite destinations for Bulgarian nurses are the UK, Italy and Spain, the report said.
Head nurse Camellia Tsvetanova has been in the profession for more than 16 years and is currently employed in the pediatric ward of the Vratsa multi-profile hospital where things have been changing drastically over the years. In the old days, according to Tsvetanova, the number of nurses would depend on the number of doctors in any given institution. Once that requirement was scrapped, however, "the amount of pressure on nurses and the rest of the staff increased dramatically", while pay decreased.
Some nurses in Bulgaria work for as little as 400 leva a month, the report said.
"At the moment we have two nurses working first shift, responsible for 15 children, which is a lot more than the proportion in other European countries," she told bTV.
"There is too much responsibility, we work overtime and at night, and the the pay is very low," she added.
The phenomenon of course is not only limited to Vratsa or the northwest of Bulgaria, but it is common throughout the sector.
Doctors and nurses are abandoning their jobs in Bulgaria to seek better-paid work abroad, Last year, about 350 doctors asked for a certificate to practise abroad by the end of August in 2010 alone. A further 440 doctors had left Bulgaria in 2009, media reports say.
According to the Bulgarian medical association, the number of doctors and nurses leaving the country has been growing constantly in the past three years and the trend is likely to continue.
Current rates suggest that about a thousand nurses leave the country every year to work abroad. As a consequence, the number of qualified health-care professionals in Bulgaria has halved and continues to decrease, the private television channel bTV reported on May 10 2011.
Favourite destinations for Bulgarian nurses are the UK, Italy and Spain, the report said.
Head nurse Camellia Tsvetanova has been in the profession for more than 16 years and is currently employed in the pediatric ward of the Vratsa multi-profile hospital where things have been changing drastically over the years. In the old days, according to Tsvetanova, the number of nurses would depend on the number of doctors in any given institution. Once that requirement was scrapped, however, "the amount of pressure on nurses and the rest of the staff increased dramatically", while pay decreased.
Some nurses in Bulgaria work for as little as 400 leva a month, the report said.
"At the moment we have two nurses working first shift, responsible for 15 children, which is a lot more than the proportion in other European countries," she told bTV.
"There is too much responsibility, we work overtime and at night, and the the pay is very low," she added.
The phenomenon of course is not only limited to Vratsa or the northwest of Bulgaria, but it is common throughout the sector.
Doctors and nurses are abandoning their jobs in Bulgaria to seek better-paid work abroad, Last year, about 350 doctors asked for a certificate to practise abroad by the end of August in 2010 alone. A further 440 doctors had left Bulgaria in 2009, media reports say.
According to the Bulgarian medical association, the number of doctors and nurses leaving the country has been growing constantly in the past three years and the trend is likely to continue.
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This low pay in Bulgaria is a big concern not only to the Bulgarians but to everyone who live in Bulgaria. These people in power both past and present are heartless. They make laws and ordinary citizens are swamped in it. We are not even talking about savings, rather about salaries of shame not being enough to buy and pay for the basics. 400lv is nothing compare to the services they give in return. The taproot of bad government in Bulgaria is strong and well nurished by Bulgarians failure to revolt against them. They simply ignore them and head to [...]
Read the full comment the west. Pull this government down since it would not serve the needs of the people. I don't think Bulgaria has been able to produce strong radicals since becoming a democratic nation, people are too scared to speak and protest against bad rule. For this cause Boiko Borisov party was voted to power, instead it had all salaries frozen. I now crown him Prime minister MISERY.
Cosmos, you normally write more intellegent comments then this one, this is a serious problem in Bulgaria, Drs and Nurses are grossly underpaid, it's just a fact, do you want someone with your life in their hands to be making 400lv a month, do you think they are motivated to do a good job with this salary? Pay them what they are worth. Try to skip the dog comments, they are childish and you know it
well ztain the Roma to do the job
If all the nurses and doctors that leave take a street dog the amount of dog bites goes down and less of a need for nurses.
There is a silver lining in every cloud.
Stiga - plenty of tram-driving jobs in the UK, I'm afraid (just remember to drive the tram on the left hand side of the road !)
:-(|)
Your comments are not funny, the situation is urgent and I hope the two of you never need a nurse to help you when you need it.
THe fact that this problem is even being brought to light just shows that the pay that they are given is a joke, these people take care of people when they are at their worse and need medical attention. The state needs to wake up and take a look at the pay trends in other European country's. THe fact that they are getting 400lv a month is an insult and the [...]
Read the full comment pay for the Drs is even more of an insult, now I realize that most Bulgarian medical professionals are in fact under trained, they still provide the best medical carethat the
Who will take care of you when you get bit by a stray dog?
Just so long as the Sofia tram drivers do not start leaving we will be OK!