site.btaOver 520 Inspections Carried Out in Homes for Elderly since Beginning of 2025, Says Social Minister

Minister of Labour and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov said Sunday on the air of Bulgarian National Radiothat there have been more than 520 inspections since the beginning of the year in homes for the elderly. More than 120 checks have been carried out since the beginning of the campaign to uncover unlicensed accommodation for the elderly, and 12 such homes have been discovered and over 400 elderly people have been removed and put transferred to locations with better conditions.

Minister Gutsanov said that the aim is to improve care for the elderly in the long term. “We have caught absurd things, one cannot imagine them,” he said. “Not just malnourished people who do not leave their rooms, but those who need radically different care and treatment, with different needs,” he added.

Gutsanov thanked the institutions, in particular the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, for exposing the illegal homes for the elderly. “I regret that for years no one has taken up this issue,” he said.

A review of suitable buildings in communities that could become retirement homes is underway, he said, noting that it is possible to build 10-15 new homes for the elderly. Mayors have submitted 111 buildings, former schools, health facilities. Authorities will assess which of them can be renovated and used for homes after analyzing the needs of the region, waiting seniors, the need for new jobs.

In response to a question about a claim by Continue the Change Chair Assen Vassilev about a sum of money being requested by the health minister for the construction of the National Health Hospital, Gutsanov said, "I haven't heard anything, I can't comment on it." The Minister said that the work is going well in the Labour and Social Policy and there is no danger of losing funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan. “We even managed to negotiate with the European Commission another BGN 77.6 million for the purchase of electric vehicles for municipalities that provide social services,” he added.