In large hospitals there are major interests involved. But when they are at the highest level and on one side of the fence is the health department and the manager of the hospital covering the whole area, while on the other – the mayor and the municipal government, the result is chaos, financial problems, and even a threat to the health of patients. This is the scenario that has been going on in the Multipurpose Hospital Prof. Stoyan Kirkovich in Stara Zagora for almost two weeks. Director Prof. Petrana Chakurova was dumbstruck, when by order of the local council the authorities imposed a distraint on all bank accounts of health facility managed by her. It turned out that the claims of the Town Hall are for 450,000 levs in unpaid local taxes accrued before the period in office of Mrs. Chakurova. She described the action of the municipality as inhumane, indecent and obscene.
„When they do impose distraints, let’s not forget that this is the only place in the region, which performs hemodialysis. When our funds are seized to the last penny, we need to leave these patients waiting. If it will save the lives of patients, we can submit our resignations, but the municipal administration should answer whether this behaviour of racketeering and extortion is indeed within human. Due to the circumstances and the inability to carry out treatment tomorrow we stop taking on new patients. Because of the municipal government and the mayor they will be redirected to the private hospitals,“ said Professor Chakurova.
Looks like the threat was heard and the public response was too strong, because the next day the distraint was dropped. Mayor of Stara Zagora Zhivko Todorov said what happened was absurd and went far beyond his competence, by giving an assessment of the management of the hospital in which the municipality is a very small shareholder. „We showed our attitude towards the incompetent and irresponsible management of the largest regional hospital. It has driven the hospital into bankruptcy, the best specialists of it keep leaving. What is unacceptable is the cynical behaviour of the management at this time. Prof. Chakurova pretends as if nothing happens. If things continue at this rate in a very short time it will be completely without staff. And who will be guilty tomorrow, when the public healthcare in Stara Zagora collapses says the mayor, elected from GERB.
According to him,
the absurd management policies of the Director
Professor Petrana Chakurova can be judged by the lack of a management programme and a plan to end the leaving of leading physicians, which leads to the collapse of the Department of Invasive Cardiology, and the lack of anesthesiologists. Todorov brough up other serious charges – Mrs. Chakurova chased experienced doctors, as they no longer brought 50,000 levs per month to the hospital, and did not know how the things were with the bank accounts of her own hospital because they had been already unblocked.
Colleague of the Mayor and City Council President Emil Hristov on his turn accused Chakurova of not covering debts to energy supplier EVN and the hospital thus accumulated a debt of 1.2 million levs since November. Instead of paying it, she preferred to keep doomed to failure court cases against the company, resulting in 70,000 levs for attorneys’ fees and court fees.
„To avoid speculation that conflicts are politically motivated, we supported the candidacy of a proven professional, who hold dear the development of the hospital and presented a very good programme for management. This is the application of the ex-councilor and advisor from the socialist party, Dr. Marius Kirkov,“ said Mr. Hristov. SaidDr. Kirkov, however, in a rather peculiar way left the council after being elected to the board of directors of the Hospital Prof. Stoyan Kirkovich. „Among all the documents I was given a form of a declaration relating to a request for my resignation as a councilor, and I had to sign it,“ he said.
