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The owners of "DCC 1" want to buy out all the premises and ideal parts that remained public municipal property after the privatization of the building of the former polyclinic in April 2001. This is how property disputes will be resolved once and for all, said the majority owner of DCC 1 Dr. Mikhail Tikov. Because of the intentions to build a private hospital next to the municipal Dr. Tikov gave a special press conference on July 4. The same day he spoke with the doctors from the municipal hospital "MHAT-Velingrad", who together with the manager Dr. Yordanka Savova and the municipal controller Dr. Zdravka Maslarova spent over two hours of their working hours to meet with Dr. Tikov. According to M. Tykov much of the information about the future new hospital is distorted. The need for it to be built is related to that after 2007. the current municipal hospital will not stand up to the European Union's requirements for accreditation. And since January 2006. the state will stop funding such hospitals under an agreement with the IMF. Thus, according to Dr. Tikov, Velingrad and the region may be without a hospital and therefore they intend to build a new healthcare facility that meets the modern requirements. Their desire is to work in collaboration with the municipal hospital, and Dr. Tikov emphasized that until now DCC 1 has been implementing the tacit agreement to direct patients to the municipal hospital. Which is more important - Velingrad to have a nice hospital or to satisfy the interests of advisers whose way of life is to interfere, he asked. With his assessment of the future of the municipal hospital agreed Dr. Savova. According to her, "MHAT - Velingrad" will be able to meet the requirements of the EU if the municipality allocates between 2 and 3 million levs. And since it is clear that this will not happen, it is better for the municipal and private hospital to exist in parallel. There are unoccupied niches, we have a real chance to expand the volume of activities, believes Dr. Savova. She is not afraid of the option in the municipal hospital to treat more patients without health insurance, which would deprive the health institution of receipts and means a slow bankruptcy. Dr. Savova definitely surprised journalists with the news that these patients were already few and most had paid the due insurance. However, no clear explanation of the paradox was given that for years, investments were made in the municipal hospital with the idea of a better assessment in accreditation; that it was repeatedly highlighted how the hospital was stabilized and prospects for successful development were drawn, and now it is suddenly said that in 2006. The municipality of Velingrad can be left without a hospital.
According to Dr. Tikov, the future of the municipal hospital after 2006. is its base to be used as a specialized unit - for example in the field of neurology. Asked to what extent the municipal hospital is dependent on him at the moment, Dr. Tikov replied: "To a very large extent." And explained that if the "DCC 1" are not well-intentioned, they can direct patients to Pazardzhik. A "DCC 1" holds 99% of primary examinations in the region and is the main source of patients for the hospital. We are not guided by the motive to interfere with the municipal hospital or to bankrupt it, M emphasized. Tykov. The main goal for investors in the new hospital will be to meet European norms and raise the level of health care in Velingrad. They are ready to invest in the first stage up to 3 million leva, and the municipality will not have any financial commitment to the construction of the new hospital. Regarding the staff, Dr. Tikov said that they will work exclusively with local doctors, although there are not many specialists in Velingrad. Asked that then the desired by the patients competition would be missing, Dr. Tikov replied that they would try to create competition between the local doctors. The sick question of launching the microbiological laboratory for the umpteenth time went unanswered. Dr. Savova, who was tasked with opening the laboratory by a decision of the Municipal Council, gave no guarantees that this would happen soon. As a reason, the dispute over the property was again pointed out, which could also go to court. Very indicative was Dr. Tikov's answer to a question about whose property are the premises of the Center for Hemodialysis - municipal or of "DCC 1". If we go to trial, hemodialysis could be ours, M said. Tykov. But he hastened to add that at this stage his position is to sign an agreement with the municipality and not go to court, because of the confrontation no one has any interest. The topic remains relevant because recently the Municipal Council allocated over 37,000 levs to "MHAT-Velingrad" for repair of the Hemodialysis Center and it is important in whose property it was invested.
The request to build a new hospital brings the City Council to a new difficult decision. Not only for the place of the hospital (if the municipality refuses, investors can also build on a private plot), not only for the deadlines (from "DCC 1" insist the decision not to be postponed to September). Part of the issues is that of the upcoming new monopoly in local health care, whose path was opened with the privatization of DCC 1 in 2001.
Elena Baeva