Author: BCI

Habilitated pediatricians and medics to the people

The main question nation before the nation is when will we reduce record infant mortality and very high overall mortality? When will we stem the deepening demographic crisis? Can we achieve good health care without competition on quality and without patients having a wide choice of where to be treated?

The launch of the multi-profile high-tech ‘Mama and I’ non-children’s private hospital in Sofia and the construction of the state-run National Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Gorna Banya go hand in hand towards the solution and are part of the right answers to these questions. So the parties should ask and listen to the voters, who know that no country in the world has achieved high-quality healthcare on its own. This is as true in autocratic regimes as it is in a political democracy with a market economy. It is only possible when domestic investors are not driven away, because without them, foreign investors don’t come either. It is possible when competition on quality is encouraged and the right to a wide range of patient choices is ensured.

How exactly is the ‘Mom and Me’ project in Sofia preventing the state from “standing its ground” as President Radev wants? We are developing a very young workforce in the state-of-the-art newly built ‘Mama and I’ maternal and child health clinic in Pleven. We accept the most difficult and severe cases. Treatment of children is free of charge. We work on the same undervalued paediatric pathways and show that with good management a paediatric clinic can exist without permanent state subsidies, and when they are provided to the state, they should be there for the private ones, because we treat Bulgarian children too!

Therefore WE ARE FREE TO TELL THE TRUTH: We are not serfs to be “pulled”, “(under)dragged”, “booked” or “taken over”, nor can paid consultants or landed gentry foundations advise us on the feudalisation they serve! Why, being against ‘Mommy and Me’, did the opposition not and have not created cadres for so many years so far? How and why are they reserving cadre potential in deficit for future hospitals for after 6 or more years? The modern medicine we practice is an applied and team science – in constant powerful development. Clearly the opposition is serving competing and other conservative vested interests, orchestrating the blockade of metropolitan patients and suppressing honest competition.

Since Glavchev has repeatedly admitted that Decision No. 318 of 30 April this year was legal and correct, and was indeed adopted according to the established procedure, with a previously published agenda of the Council of Ministers, should the people now tell the parties – should the laws be respected in our European republic, or are we going to listen to self-appointed foundations, networks, platforms and esnafs who scream that the decision was “taken in the dark” and “not coordinated” with them? The exercise of state protectionism in Sofia healthcare and the blocking of patients’ access to quality competition are only the visible dimensions of the double standards in the ‘deep state’. That is why Prime Minister Glavchev refuses to meet, and there is no help for the children who are treated in the private ‘Mama and I’!

The voters should tell the parties that before there are students and teachers at the May 24 celebrations, there must be healthy children and healthy parents. Before we can have a fighting army we must raise healthy children and have enough qualified and motivated medics in the country as well as engineers, pilots, accountants. And how will all this be achieved without , Mama and I’ and without the NDP, and without competition on quality in health care, and without adherence to professional medical standards? The incumbent ‘savants’ and populists did not create the cadres, but drove them out, they do not treat children, and infant mortality is skyrocketing, they serve feudalization against competition, they cannot build modern hospitals, and they do not give the proven investors to build in Sofia – because nowhere in the world the state alone can do everything!

Since the president has no right to interfere in the work of the government, and the prime minister has no right to divide hospitals according to their ownership and children into assisted and abandoned again, let all parties in Sofia ask their voters in election meetings and assemblies:

Do you want a new modern multi-specialty hospital in Sofia to improve the quality of health care? Without it, will the 50 per cent of empty beds in the country’s largest city be filled and how will the severe shortage of staff be overcome? Can a blockade of the capital city and the elimination of quality competition reform and develop healthcare? Do we want to treat our children and families in Romania, Turkey and other private clinics abroad? With ‘Mama and I’ in Sofia, will more young doctors and nurses stay in Bulgaria and more return from abroad?

At ‘Mama and I‘ we invest in the long-term training and development of our specialists.

The full interview can be seen here in Bulgarian.

The birth of every child is a period filled with anxious anticipation and excitement. But when a newborn is one of around 6,500 premature babies born in Bulgaria each year, staying in intensive care is a huge emotional challenge for the whole family. Parents often feel confused and frightened by the long hospital stay. Kangaroo care plays a key role in these moments.

Originating in 1970 in Bogotá, Colombia, it has seen a rapid rise and is gaining popularity among modern professionals. Kangaroo care is a globally recognized practice through which contact is made between parents and the newborn admitted to an intensive neonatal care unit. Through numerous studies, it has been established that mother-baby (or dad-baby) contact is not just a hug, but a set of multiple beneficial effects that follow from these contacts.

Since the opening of our newest maternal and child health clinic ‘Mama and I’ one year ago, a dedicated kangaroo room has existed in the neonatology department – an integral part of the holistic care we aim to provide to our young patients and their parents. Once premature (and sometimes “normally” delivered) newborns are removed from the intensive highly specialized environment, a kangaroo room is provided for parents. It is useful for both the baby and the parents, who are given the chance to be part of the hospital stay and actively participate in their child’s upbringing.

Here, through the advice and practices of the medical professionals, not only are parents educated in the care of their children, but a strong and meaningful bond is built, often practicing the kangaroo-contact right down to the couch itself. On a daily basis, the midwives and doctors help the mother with advice related to breastfeeding, daily toileting and individual features related to the child’s condition. We welcome and encourage the equal participation of both parents as a unit, and increasingly actively involve the dad in the overall care of both premature and term babies.

The Kangaroo Corner of ‘ Mama and I’ implements world-renowned recommendations and builds confident and calm parents who will provide better quality care for their children. In this room we have successfully completed the diagnostic and treatment process and care for the youngest patients born with us and in Bulgaria in general – Sashko weighing 630 grams, Petya weighing only 600 grams, Rayan…. and many other children who are now healthy and with their parents.