The record budget of the National Health Insurance Fund in itself does not guarantee better healthcare. This was stated by the former governor of the NHIF, Dr. Decho Dechev, in the studio of "Denyat ON AIR".
According to him, the main problem is not the size of the budget, but the lack of effective control over the spending of funds.
"Billions have nothing to do with control over their use. Control is a completely different thing," Dechev emphasized.
He added that for years there has been talk about weak control, but real measures to improve it have never been taken.
According to him, the Fund is most often drained by reporting unperformed medical activities or activities performed in a smaller volume than reported.
"If the management comes to a direction in which control is objective and effective, there is expert potential to implement such a policy," he said on Bulgaria ON AIR.
The former Fund manager refused to specify a specific amount of funds that are being lost, but recalled that in six years the hospital care budget has doubled, and yet the system has reached a deficit.
He emphasized that in 2019, when he headed the NHIF, the institution ended the year without a deficit in all feathers.
Dechev admitted that pressure on the treasury management has always existed, but warned that certain limits should not be crossed.
"Red lines" are when, thanks to pressure, obvious violations are allowed not to be publicly announced", he said.
According to him, the number of doctors in Bulgaria has remained approximately the same for decades, but the number of medical institutions is significantly higher, which wastes human resources.
On the topic of the National Children's Hospital, Dechev said that the country undoubtedly needs a modern medical institution for children, but in his opinion it should be built as part of a large hospital complex.
The former governor of the NHIF also criticized politicians who, in his opinion, avoid unpopular decisions.
He pointed out that in some settlements, restructuring or closing hospitals will be necessary if this guarantees better quality medical care.
"The political risk must be borne and measures must be envisaged that may not be popular at first", he stressed Dechev.
At the end of the conversation, he also commented on the changes related to public procurement in private hospitals.
According to Dechev, they will not lead to any significant results if there is no real control over the entire supply chain - from the manufacturer to the medical facility.