site.btaPublic Board for National Children's Hospital Resigns over Lack of Transparency

The Public Board for the project to build a National Children's Hospital has collectively resigned due to limited access to information, the Council's chair, Prof. Ivan Litvinenko, announced Thursday. He said the Council, established two and a half years ago to ensure transparency in the process of building the future hospital, made the decision unanimously. "Over the years, we have made many compromises, worked with several ministers and made compromises but what we could not accept was the limited access to information," Prof. Litvinenko said.

He added that efforts should have been made to ensure good communication with the Board, but sometimes they were given only 24 hours to review large volumes of information.

Prof. Litvinenko emphasized that the Council repeatedly pointed out the need not only to build the hospital but also to ensure it is staffed and properly funded, as it cannot function under the current clinical pathway system. "We said that work should start to secure [medical] personnel for the hospital. We do not see steps in this direction, despite repeatedly offering ideas on how this could be achieved," he said.

The Board learned about some project phases from media reports, he added.

It also transpired that the planned terms of reference for the design competition for the hospital building was withheld from the Board and it would only receive the information when it became public, at which point it would be too late to react to any inaccuracies or ill-considered elements. The refusal was justified by concerns that the Public Board might compromise the competition, a claim Prof. Litvinenko rejected.

He noted that the next stages of the project require expertise in finance, design, and architecture, but despite more than six months of requests, no such experts have been added to the Public Board.

Dr. Blagomir Zdravkov, director of the existing Specialized Children's Hospital, said there is still no solution for staffing the new hospital or for the possible integration of existing pediatric clinics. "The issue has long been raised and discussed many times, but there is still no decision," he said.

Maria Brestnichka, a Board member, stressed that without seeing the design terms before publication, there is no guarantee the project will meet the standards for a modern children's hospital. "We have requested it several times and received a categorical refusal. We want to see it before it is published to ensure it matches the analysis and structure, which were prepared for free as a donation to the Bulgarian state," she said.

The Board members assured that they will continue to monitor the process, as each of them remains committed to children's healthcare.

After their statement to the media, the Council members were invited to a meeting at the Ministry of Health, but they submitted their collective resignation before the meeting.