site.btaState "Opened Pandora’s Box" in Nursing Homes Probe, Says Social Policy Minister

The state found the courage to open Pandora's Box, Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Borislav Gutsanov, said at a meeting of the parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Policy on Wednesday. The hearing of representatives of competent institutions in connection with inspections carried out in the homes for the elderly and hospices in the village of Yagoda, Maglizh Municipality, and the village of Govedartsi, Samokov Municipality, was on the MPs agenda Wednesday. Representatives of the Labour and Social Policy Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Prosecutor's Office, the Executive Agency for Medical Supervision, and other institutions were present.

“For the first time, the state gathered courage to open Pandora's Box. This is something that is not a secret, there have been similar cases that were made public before too, although not quite so openly,” he said. Similar attempts to go inside and inspect such institutions have been made before, but the answer has always been that they were private establishments, the minister added.

Legal changes that foresee punitive measures for providing social or healthcare services without a license are being prepared by a working group, Petya Lazarova, from the Justice Ministry said. According to her, the texts are expected to be ready within two weeks.

The Prime Minister fully supported and was kept up to date on the findings of the inspections that were carried out, Minister Gutsanov said.

Several steps must be taken, one requires political will in order to incriminate such violations, Gutsanov added. The second step foresees an expansion of the Agency for Quality of Social Services to the Ministry of Labour. Thirdly, the people in these homes and hospices must be moved to places with normal facilities and care, the minister said.

“All 75 elderly people from the home in the village of Yagoda have been accommodated at the Stara Zagora hospital and other suitable places. 23 elderly people have been evacuated from the Govedartsi facility and have been accommodated at the Multi-profile Hospital for Active Treatment in Samokov. There were 132 people in the facilities in Varna, 72 of them have been evacuated so far. Some of the people have been hospitalized. The evacuation continues with the support of the Interior Ministry and probably everyone will be evacuated today, Gutsanov said.

“This is heartbreaking. We have described them as “horror homes”, as something that has long lost its human face,” he added.

“The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has yet to determine whether the evacuated people need more examinations, what vacancies do municipal nursing homes have, what buildings can be reorganized,” he added. Talks with Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev and Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov are forthcoming, as well as a meeting with the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria. All institutions must work together in order to deal with the problem, especially in view of the analysis of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on the demography of the country and the expected aging of the population, Minister Gutsanov added.

Nearly 80 inspections have been carried out by the Executive Agency for Medical Supervision, the head of the Agency, Yordanka Dineva, said. According to her, the people in these facilities were in serious health condition. She added that the Agency had received signals of violence against the elderly at the home in Govedartsi.