Криминална хроника

Advisers: This is privatization under the table worth more than 4 million euros
With an open letter to the municipal leadership, the doctors from the Hospital-Velingrad said: "The medical team believes that the right alternative for the future of a municipal hospital is to direct the efforts to seek agreement with the owner of the new hospital Dr. M. Tick for finding the appropriate option of uniting the two medical institutions in the appropriate form and creating one perspective, working structure."
On March 12, on this occasion, a meeting was held in the municipality between the doctors from the municipal hospital headed by the manager Dr. Yordanka Savova and the controller Dr. Zdravka Maslarova and the municipal government in the person of Mayor Stoyan Dulev, the Deputy Mayor Recep Hodzhov, the Chairman of the Municipal Council Nejat Kehayov, the councilors from the Committee on Education and Health and members of the Operational Bureau, Fidel MP. The meeting clearly outlined the positions of the different participants for the future of the municipal hospital:
DOCTORS: THE FUTURE IS IN COLLABORATION WITH THE PRIVATE HOSPITAL OF TIKOV
The chief exponent of this position became Dr. Veselin Radichev, who supported it with 9 arguments from the open letter: so far the municipal hospital works in full collaboration with DCC 1, which is owned by Dr. Tikov; uses premises on the territory of DCC 1, as well as their laboratories and a scanner, without which it cannot conclude a contract with the NHIF; the hospital uses doctors-specialists from DCC 1 and vice versa - doctors from MBAL work. The municipal hospital and the new private hospital can have a stable future only on the basis of collaboration in an appropriate form. Needless to even comment on the creation of two identical competing structure on the territory of Velingrad, it is much easier to unite them. The existence of parallel structures would lead to a lack of sufficient qualified staff, of patients and of spending funds to operate 2 identical adjacent structures. To the arguments from the open letter Dr. Radichev added that after the privatization of the polyclinic in 1999. The hospital remains without a "frontal front" and will hang in a vacuum if DCC 1 stops directing patients to it.
The municipal councilor Dr. Petar Buchkov said that in the 21st century healthcare is a business with a lot of investment. The problem is that the municipality cannot adequately finance in the health institution, and so far there is only one investor in Velingrad who wants to do it and this is Dr. Tikov. The doctors who spoke added that under the current rules of the Ministry of Health and the NHIF, which stop the state funding of hospitals, our MHAT will not be able to meet the European standards. There is a risk of partnership with a private investor, but there is also the risk in 3-4 years whether there will be a hospital. Dr. Baldzhieva also pointed out another argument: "As doctors we do not care whether a private investor or the municipality stands above us, it is logotic to choose better pay."
The manager of the municipal hospital, Dr. Yordanka Savova, did not answer with specific figures to the question of DPS adviser Asan Kepchelev what is the financial situation of the hospital. She summarized that the municipality has given only 130 000 leva and the hospital has invested over 1 million own funds for repairs and equipment to meet the requirements of the Health Insurance Fund. We supported the construction of the private hospital a year ago because we have a common staff, we rotate the patients, but "MHAT" will remain without doctors at the moment they are offered higher salaries, believes Dr. Savova. She also pointed out the restriction imposed by the NHIF from this year that doctors can work a maximum of 2 contracts rather than 3 (if possible for 3 contracts doctors can work simultaneously in the municipal hospital, in the private hospital and in DCC 1).
THE MAYOR DULEV: THE MUNICIPALITY DOES NOT LOSE FROM THE HIDDEN PRIVATISATION
Mayor Stoyan Dulev fully supported the request of the doctors with the words: "The municipality has no financial resources to maintain a hospital, and under the new rules of the Health Insurance Fund "MHAT" can not reinvest in construction. The municipal hospital is declining and in 3-4 years it will come to its privatization, from which funds will enter the municipality and disappear. Until then, we will jointly liquidate "MHAT" and will there be any willing to buy it, will the personnel potential be maintained? It is true that now a hidden privatization is offered, but the municipality does not lose because its share in the capital remains. We will not seek dividends from people's healthcare. A separate question is how much the investor will benefit."
The mayor's determination to get the deal through was also evident in his intention at the March session to put on the agenda a demand that the building and the plot of the dormitory in front of the hospital be included in its capital to build a hospice there. If this is accepted by the advisors, the "bite" becomes even more appetizing for the future owner.
THE DEPUTY BEEV: THERE IS A HUMAN PRIVATIZATION
DPS MP Fidel Beev also attended the conversation in the municipality, having previously held a meeting with the doctors. I welcome their idea to find a way to improve their work, but the decision will be the Municipal Council, I can only help, he said. And pointed out that there is also a nice privatization, the question is to choose the right person.
THE COUNSELORS: WE HAVE A BORDER EXPERIENCE, THE RISK IS MUCH
As owners of the capital of the municipal trade company "MHAL-Velingrad", the councilors will make the difficult decision about the future of the hospital. Most of them did not hide their perplexity that only 1 year ago the same doctors persuaded them to support the construction of a private hospital and ensured that this did not threaten the municipal, and now they have changed their position. In almost every of the speeches of counselors, it was emphasized that they always complied with the demands of the doctors and listened to their opinions on the problems of the hospital. But that in this case it is a very complicated decision from a political, legal and managerial point of view and therefore it should not be rushed. None of the councillors present gave a hundred percent support for the idea of the doctors: Nejat Kehayov: Do the doctors realize the risks of such a decision for unification? What will the patients gain when the municipality will not be able to influence the management decisions, and the assets of the hospital are not at all small? The private healthcare sector is doing really well, but the benefits that will come should not be on the backs of patients.
Zavarin Marov: I voted for the construction of a new hospital after talks with the doctors. You were supportive then, it was good then, and it's not good now. You offer us privatization of the hospital - the creation of a joint-stock or other type of company with municipal participation. The value of the hospital is over 4 million euros, and we have bitter experience with giving municipal property under this scheme. You offer us not privatization in its pure form, but privatization under the table! In the list of 9 arguments, at least in the tenth place, you should have mentioned the patients. We have to ask the patients, we have a referendum, and they have to say if they want the hospital to be private! You want us to give away 4 million, you're shutting us down in one way!
Ekaterina Kaferinova: I voted for the new hospital because the doctors believed that it did not interfere with the development of the municipal. But now things are different, the state abdicates from healthcare and hospitals are funded only by clinical pathways. The question is whether or not we've been misled and made a mistake. Are the questions standing and is there a danger that the private hospital will apply only on profitable clinical paths, how will the socially weak be treated? Snezhana Veleva: We are reaping the fruits of health reform and its dire consequences. Unification is a very complex, important and strategic decision that requires financial and legal analysis plus clarity about the state's intentions in the field of health care. The equation cannot be solved without these unknowns. You are doctors, and you can diagnose and treat. We as councillors make decisions that have consequences for the entire population and therefore cannot do without analysis. What makes it necessary to ask at this particular moment, not to be hasty? Nadezhda Klyuchkova: Why didn't Dr. Savova become a manager at the private hospital and take the doctors there? The alternative for the municipal hospital is a new manager with a new program.
Georgi Mihaylov: I am convinced that changes are needed, but without a mentoring tone by doctors! So far, we've voted what you wanted. You insist on an alternative, but you yourself do not know how what you offer will be realized.
At the end of the heated debate, it became clear that it was the beginning of a dialogue with the common desire that it be a reasonable dialogue. But wishes are one thing, and true intentions will show by what speed and in what form they will be offered and made decisions about the future of the municipal hospital.
Elena Baeva


The history of the building
Like every building, the Hospital has its history. According to the Encyclopedic Guide "Chepino" the first sod of the building of today's municipal hospital was made in 1948, after the unification of the three villages of Chepino, Ludzhene and Kamenitsa in one city - Velingrad.
The population joined with much enthusiasm in the construction of the new hospital, which would replace the previously existing rural health services. Residents of the new city participated with both labor and funds in the construction of the building.
Until the opening of the hospital, the role of a health institution in Velingrad was performed by the United City Hospital, which was housed in the home "Mavrikovi Brothers" (today the building of Str. "Lyuben Karavelov", which is a monument of culture, has been returned to its heirs and is slowly crumbling). There were revealed 3 wards with a total of 75 beds.
The new hospital was officially opened on 26 November 1955. It has 155 beds, 53 medics and 41 support staff. The internal, surgical, pediatric, obstetrical and infectious wards have been revealed. It has a modern operating and delivery room for its time, X-ray equipment and a clinical laboratory. The same building also houses a polyclinic, which was separated into a separate new building in December 1978.
The name and co-ownership of the hospital building changed over the years: in 1956. the hospital was Okoliyska, in 1958. - Urban, 1967. - District, and in 1988. becomes Municipal. Today the building and the plot around it are public municipal property and as such the Municipal Council - Velingrad disposes with it.


Former Land Owners: We're Shocked!
"We are shocked!" - so laconically commented to the newspaper. "Tempo" intentions to turn the municipal hospital into private owners of plots on which the health institution was built.
There used to be orchards on their lands that were alienated for the construction of the hospital. After the changes in 1989. and after the adoption of the restitution laws, the heirs of the lands have made the difficult but socially significant decision not to lay claim to the land under the hospital. Decisive for the decision of part of the heirs was the opinion of Georgi Karayanev, who has been living in Sweden for many years. It was he who convinced his cousins that the Swedes had long since built communism, because they did not destroy anything they did, but built it up. After that, he helped repeatedly with donations to the municipal hospital in Velingrad. Currently, the heirs of the former land owners are more than 18 of different families. It is clear to them that after they have renounced restitution claims, they no longer have legal chances to regain the parcels from 2003 as well. the land has a municipal property deed. But from the position of people who have decided to leave their father's legacy in favor of the municipal hospital, they rightly emphasize the moral side of the matter. If this had not happened, each of them would have received a serious amount in the sale of the land, because the area around the hospital is one of the most sought after and the prices of the plots there are of the highest in Velingrad. But what would happen then with the hospital, where would the residents of the two municipalities of Velingrad and Rakitovo be treated? That is why they are outraged and shocked by the intentions of the municipal hospital to become private and we will insist that the municipal council hear us, say the former landowners.