2024-09-27 20:27:25
1.4 million live in the 12 districts where there is none, among them Pazardzhik, Pernik, Dobrich, Shumen, Yambol. In the capital, 24 of the 57 pharmacies are in continuous operation
There are only 57 24-hour pharmacies in the whole country, and nearly half of them are in Sofia. Thus, people from 12 districts have nowhere to buy medicines at night.
24 of the pharmacies with a continuous mode of operation are in the capital. They are distributed in 16 out of 24 regions. Separately, there is one in Sofia-region, which is located in Kostinbrod.
Of the other regions with the most round-the-clock pharmacies, Plovdiv is eight – eight, and all of them are on the territory of the regional city. Third is Burgas, with a total of five pharmacies for the district, one of which is in Pomorie.
There are three pharmacies in Ruse – all of them in the regional center, and in Stara Zagora – two in the city of linden trees and one in Kazanlak.
The districts of Vidin, Dobrich, Lovech, Montana, Pazardjik, Pernik, Razgrad, Silistra, Smolyan, Targovishte, Shumen and Yambol are without a single 24-hour pharmacy on their territory. A total of 1,462,453 people live in these areas as of the 2021 census. This means that 22.4% of the population does not have access to a 24-hour pharmacy. And many of the others who have actually live in other settlements and
they have to travel to the district center to buy the necessary medicines
In all other districts, there is one 24-hour pharmacy located in the district center. Blagoevgrad is an exception – the pharmacy is in Petrich.
In Yambolsko there are two pharmacies with extended working hours, and in Blagoevgradsko, Vidinsko and Targovishtko – one each.
The trend is still positive, as 11 out of all 57 pharmacies were opened or switched to 24-hour mode after June 2023. The reason is the methodology introduced last year for
additional financing of round-the-clock pharmacies,
as well as those that are in remote or hard-to-reach areas.
All these data become clear from the answer of the official health minister Galya Kondeva in the parliamentary control.
On September 12, the parliament adopted a bill that offers state funding for the opening of pharmacies, including 24-hour ones, as well as for the installation of drug vending machines. It was introduced by Vazrazhdane, but received support from GERB, BSP, DPS-Dogan, ITN and three from PP-DB. 12 from the DPS of Delyan Peevski were “against”, and 20 from the PP-DB – “abstained”.
Pharmaceutical organizations jumped against the changes for two reasons – it is not clear who will be responsible for the drugs people buy, and because they believe there are enough pharmacies in the country.
In the end, the second vote of this bill in this parliament did not come because it is already on pre-election vacation.
There are a total of 3,266 pharmacies in the country, of which 42 are drugstores, announced the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union. That means it’s falling
one pharmacy per 2135 people instead of 3230 as per the standard
on the National Pharmacy Card. In EU countries, on average, there is one pharmacy for over 4,000 people.
In support of the people of small settlements, on Wednesday the deputies legalized telemedicine (treatment at a distance), as well as hospitals to allocate mobile medical teams to visit cities and villages without a doctor.