Doctors and patients from Pirogov emergency hospital are once again organizing a protest in support of hospital director Prof. Asen Baltov who was dismissed from the post. They blocked off a Sofia boulevard and demanded the resignation of interim Minister of Hrealth Stoycho Katsarov. The protesters are also demanding the creation of a clinical pathway for the treatment of post-Covid complications. 

In an interview for the BNR's Horizont programme Assoc. Prof. Atanas Mangarov, head of the Covid ward at the infectious diseases hospital in Sofia commented that the Pirogov case is an example of ”cash medicine”.

“For 20 years the clinical pathways, the system by which hospitals are paid, has been constructed so that there is no connection between the work of the doctors and the payment for the treatment. One of the authors of this system is current Health Minister Stoycho Katsarov,” Assoc. Prof. Mangarov said. 

Meanwhile, patients’ organizations "Together with You" said that they did not support the protests of medics from Pirogov Hospital for Emergency Medicine. In a press release the patients’ organizations point out that the replacement of the hospital’s Executive Director is normal when violations to the tune of over EUR 500,000 are found during an inspection conducted by the National Health Insurance Fund.