site.btaMedical Association: Young Doctors’ Demands Fair, but Wage Increases Require Sustainable Healthcare Funding

Young doctors’ demands are fair, but increasing their salaries is only possible through fair and sustainable financing of the healthcare system, the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) said on Tuesday.

On Monday, doctors and other healthcare professionals held protests in Sofia and other cities, demanding reform, fair pay, transparent criteria for specialist training, and better working conditions.

According to the BMA, the Ministry of Health could consider increasing direct subsidies for healthcare professionals. This would support young doctors without disrupting the balance in the system. However, the Association emphasized that the healthcare system’s issues are deeply structural and cannot be resolved solely by demanding higher wages. The current protests, they warned, risk returning to a centrally funded model with fixed, uniform salaries. Today, doctor pay varies based on workload, specialty, hospital, and demand—flexibility achieved over the past 25 years that should be built upon, not reversed.

BMA also recalled that it has commissioned a methodology for valuing medical labour, ensuring predictable and sustainable pay aligned with career progression. Though submitted to three health ministers, this methodology has yet to be implemented.

“We firmly support fair pay for everyone working in healthcare, but highlighting only part of the problems without addressing the systemic causes leads to a distorted picture,” the Association said.

The main challenge in healthcare is underfunding, BMA stated. Bulgaria allocates a very low percentage of its GDP to healthcare, and the current health insurance contribution is insufficient to support modern, high-quality, and accessible medical services. Therefore, BMA has launched an initiative to increase healthcare’s share of GDP.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Podkrepa Medical Federation also expressed support for the protesting doctors. The trade union warned that if there is no progress in collective bargaining, it may initiate legal procedures for gradually suspending work across healthcare facilities where its branches operate.