site.btaMedics' Remunerations Should Be Set Through Collective Bargaining, Not Fixed in Law - Hospital Organizations

At a BTA-hosted news conference here on Monday, the National Union of Private Hospitals (NUPH) and the Bulgarian Hospital Association called for a sustainable solution to the remunerations of medics to be found through collective bargaining, and not by fixing salaries in a legislative act. NUPH Chair Krasimir Grudev explained that the two hospital organizations consider wrong the approach where the draft budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for 2026 allocates a target state transfer of EUR 260 million for staff salaries under the Medical Treatment Facilities Act. 

The Medical Treatment Facilities Act sets precise, fixed amounts, but what will happen next year when inflation hits Bulgaria even harder – will the law have to be amended again, asked Grudev. According to him, this also violates the principle of tripartite dialogue.

Bulgarian Hospital Association head Svilena Dimitrova said that the issue concerns the remuneration of young medical specialists. For more than 20 years, healthcare funding has been based on the work performed. The current proposal is to fix amounts only for salaries, which leads to an imbalance in the way the system functions, she commented. It is not correct to give a fixed amount without taking into account how the person receiving it is involved in the work process, Dimitrova argued.

Both organizations state in a written position that staff transfers are planned "to specific medical institutions: hospitals, mental health centres, centres for skin and venereal diseases, comprehensive oncology centres, and medical-social care homes, but not to private ones."

On November 26, the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee approved at second reading the draft budget of the National Health Insurance Fund for 2026. A day later, the Government announced that it would revise 2026 State Budget Bill in dialogue with trade unions and employers. The talks began on November 28 and are expected to continue this week.