Speaking at the “Medical Tourism: Potential Solutions for Bulgaria” forum on Monday, Svirena Dimitrova, president of the Bulgarian Hospital Association, noted that medical tourism is a potential growth area for Bulgaria’s healthcare system. With the right development, she suggested, Bulgaria could become a medical tourism hub. She noted the slow progress in formulating government policies for the sector and stressed the need for stable political governance.
Dr. Ivan Madjarov, president of the Bulgarian Medical Association, said the industry was struggling to embrace the concept of tourism. He also expressed concern about the high level of distrust in the country’s health system, which he attributed to ageing hospitals and poor treatment outcomes. He suggested that Bulgaria should offer innovative health services and invest in medicine. He also said Bulgaria had missed an opportunity to set up a proton beam center for cancer treatment. Madjarov expressed disappointment that he had tried to notify the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Health but nothing had been done.
Dr. Nikolai Sharkov, president of the Bulgarian Dental Association, supports the need for investment in the dental sector. He said that 80% of Bulgarian dentists are on par with European and global dentists. He noted that EU spending on dental services exceeded 90 billion euros in 2018. Sharkov also said that dental tourism is on the rise in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Croatia and Cyprus, and Bulgaria could join the race. However, he warned about the risks of dental tourism, including quality of service, potential complications due to lack of regulation, language barriers, post-operative care issues, hidden costs, misdiagnosis, insufficient legal protection for patients and medical errors.
Svetla Kachalova highlighted the inconsistency of case law on medical reimbursement in each country as the reason for the adoption of the European Directive on Cross-Border Healthcare, which aims to facilitate access to safe and quality cross-border healthcare within the EU. She pointed out the growing financial burden of cross-border healthcare and the worrying trend of resources being diverted to treatment outside the EU despite potential risks and non-compliance with EU directives. Kachalova noted that only 40% of patients are aware of their rights as insurance policyholders and only 10% know about their rights to receive healthcare and treatment abroad. She suggested that approval conditions for treatment abroad should be relaxed.
/DT/
