Bulgaria: Mayors Buy Medicines for Entire Villages as 1/3 of the Pharmacies in the Country are in just 3 Big Cities

Hundreds of residents of small settlements in Bulgaria continue to be without access to medicines.

According to data from the Executive Medicines Agency, by 2021 the number of pharmacies in our country was 3,300, with a third of them concentrated in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna.

According to an analysis by the Institute for Market Economy, there is not a single pharmacy in 20 municipalities, and in 40 there is only one pharmacy.

Entire municipalities in the country remain without pharmacies

"Ensuring the population's equal access to pharmaceutical services should be the job of the state, not the private initiative," believes Angela Mizova, vice-president of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union and owner of a pharmacy in a small town.

"In Bulgaria, there is no regulation whatsoever on where and how many pharmacies can be opened. For years, the Pharmaceutical Union has been raising the alarm about the concentration in big cities and the lack of pharmacies in smaller towns," Mizova recalled.

"In order to make a more correct distribution, the first step was the creation of a pharmacy card, which is in process," she specified.

"The law clearly regulates where medicines are dispensed from and who dispenses them. However, dispensing means to the patient, with the corresponding pharmaceutical consultation. It is not that it is impossible for a close relative to receive the medicines. But when a person, even if he is authorized by the state - such as a mayor, is engaged in such a function, I am not convinced that he could carry out this transmission of information correctly to each of those in need," said Angela Mizova on the air of BNR.

"Pharmacies with only assistant pharmacists,...