Prosecutors and medical auditors will audit the hospitals together

“Red Phone” between the Prosecution and the Ministry of Health will fight the attacks on emergency medics. This will create a direct channel of communication between the teams of Sotir Tsatsarov and Petar Moskov. This became clear after a meeting between the heads of the two institutions in the prosecution last week. The aim of the measures is to minimize the attacks on medics and to have effective punishment of those responsible.

According to the health ministry a total of 227 attacks on emergency physicians in the past year are reported. Of those, most – 142 in Burgas. Although the law in such cases is very strict and provides for imprisonment of up to 15 years, it is not applied in practice. Since mid-2013, when the attacks on medics were criminalized, there were only five sentences so far, according to the Ministry of Health. The heaviest of them is a suspended sentence of three years in prison for assault in Shoumen District. Another five cases and proceedings are ongoing. The expectation is that by creating a hot link between the Prosecution and the Ministry of Health the law will be applied more effectively.

Apart from cooperation in support of emergency medics, Tsatsarov and Moskov agreed to cooperate in cases of violations in hospitals discovered during inspections by the Medical Audition Agency. To this end the two agencies will sign a special agreement. It will be drawn up by a joint working group.