Bulgarian authorities have did not combine Ukrainian medical specialists regardless of having a everlasting scarcity of medical personnel within the nation, Euractiv’s investigation reveals.
In mid-December, the Bulgarian Well being Mediation Affiliation, Hypophysis, was fined by the labour authorities for permitting 5 Ukrainian refugees to work as well being mediators, a medical help employees function that includes guiding and advising sufferers accessing healthcare.
The Ukrainians have been two docs, a rehabilitator, a psychologist, and a speech therapist – all professions in demand in Bulgaria.
The affiliation introduced that it’s gathering donations to pay the €6,000 fantastic imposed by the Labour Inspectorate. Later, sources within the Ministry of Labor and Social Coverage informed Euractiv the labour inspectors had “overreacted”.
After receiving an nameless tip, the labour inspectorate discovered that the Hypophysis Affiliation didn’t submit purposes inside seven days from the date the Ukrainians began working. Such a notification is obligatory as Bulgaria nonetheless treats Ukrainian refugees as residents of a non-EU nation.
Bulgaria has not totally applied the European directive that grants a special standing to refugees from Ukraine, giving them entry to the labour market in EU international locations. The Bulgarian laws continues to deal with them as financial migrants however efforts to carry the authorized obstacles are underway.
One other group of Ukrainians who labored as well being mediators and helped refugees affected by persistent ailments have been fired as a result of the state ended the well being support program for folks fleeing the battle.
Firstly of the battle, the Bulgarian state paid, along with non-public donations, for the lodging, meals and care of the 1000’s of Ukrainian refugees in numerous state and personal inns as a part of a Solidarity Programme. On this explicit case and site, there was additionally a well being mediator programme that was discontinued.
Sick persons are left with out care
After the expiration of the Solidarity Programme, care services have been left with a number of volunteer staff to take care of the sick.
One feminine volunteer is caring for the Ukrainians in want on the Zheleznichar relaxation and restoration centre close to Varna, and two different ladies, additionally volunteers, are left to take care of these accommodated on the services of the “Council of Ministers Vacation Advanced” in Sunny Seashore, together with extra refugees.
Manol Peykov, an MP from the We Proceed the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, is maybe the one politician within the Bulgarian parliament who has been actively concerned within the integration of Ukrainian refugees by his numerous initiatives because the battle began.
He informed Euractiv that he had raised the problem of the Hypophysis Affiliation case with the Minister of Labour, Ivanka Shalapatova, who took motion on the problem.
“The minister informed me that there are not any ministry staff on the Zheleznichar relaxation residence (the place Ukrainian refugees are accommodated), solely volunteers. Some refugees are despatched from there to different bases, such because the one in Veliki Preslav, which is in the midst of nowhere. On the identical time, these folks want palliative care. So, issues are in a type of indeterminate state. Pressing measures should be taken,” Peykov stated.
He described the state’s actions towards Hypophysis as shameful as a result of the Affiliation does the work of the state, whereas on the identical time, the state itself prevents volunteers from doing the work.
Bulgaria ignores the EU directive
Bulgaria stays one of many few EU international locations that has not adopted the advice of the European Fee for the speedy recognition of the diplomas of key staff – corresponding to medical specialists and lecturers, from conflict-stricken Ukraine.
Bulgaria has lengthy been gradual to recognise the diplomas of medical well being specialists from overseas.
The diplomas of the Ukrainian medical specialists should be equated with the Bulgarian diplomas, and paperwork for proficiency within the Bulgarian language should be issued. Universities have the suitable to make their very own choices concerning the legalisation of overseas diplomas, so the costs of those paperwork range enormously.
Final August, Peykov organised a marketing campaign to help the Ukrainian physician Igor Prokhorov and his colleagues – 30 docs and nurses – in order that they may undergo the nation’s elaborate administrative procedures and observe their career.
Over €50,000 was collected within the marketing campaign to assist the combination of Ukrainians into Bulgarian society and labour market.
Dr. Prokhorov has been residing in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, because the begin of the battle in 2022. In his hometown of Kharkiv, he labored as a paediatric surgeon on the Regional Kids’s Hospital. He’s a top-category physician, with ten Bulgarian specialists at most at an identical degree.
Nevertheless, Prokhorov needed to work as an orderly within the Plovdiv hospital for months as a result of, no matter his 40 years of expertise, he nonetheless needed to purchase the suitable to train the career.
Peykov’s organisation, which collects donations, helps greater than 480 folks from Ukraine – docs, nurses, laboratory technicians and different specialists – who’ve gone by the language programs, that are a obligatory situation for work.
“Progressively, issues have gotten extra tolerable. A gaggle of deputies proceed to press the state to undertake laws, as in Poland and the Czech Republic, which permits Ukrainian docs to start out working within the nation,” Peykov stated.
In any other case, he warned, good specialists, together with surgeons, might be pressured to work as orderlies.
Because the begin of the Russian army aggression in Ukraine, Bulgaria has granted short-term safety to 168,300 Ukrainian residents, rating fifth within the EU, in keeping with Eurostat knowledge revealed on December 8, 2023.
In keeping with statistics, a complete of 4.2 million Ukrainians have obtained safety within the European Union. Solely Germany (1,215,165), Poland (960,620), the Czech Republic (364,450), and Spain (189,945) have granted safety to extra Ukrainians than Bulgaria.
In keeping with UN knowledge, about 100,000 Ukrainians are completely in Bulgaria, principally within the capital, Sofia, and Varna.
[Antonia Kotseva, Krassen Nikolov, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi/Zoran Radosavljevic | Euractiv.com]
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