Flu vaccines cannot be swapped between GPs this autumn. The health ministry is working to allow it from next year, health minister Katya Ivkova told parliament.
MP Alexander Simidchiev of the Democratic Bulgaria group raised the issue during question time, when members of the health committee put oral questions. He asked about the risk that some vaccines will go unused because of late deliveries and because doctors cannot swap them.
Last year the delivery was on time, but 15% of flu vaccines still went unused, the minister said.
"We were told about the delay in deliveries at the end of September, and there was nothing we could do about it," Ivkova said.
At the end of October, the ministry said the first delivery had arrived in Bulgaria. The first 150,000 doses of injectable seasonal flu vaccine are for the national programmes for children and for people aged 65 and over. They are still to be sent to GP surgeries.
A few days ago, Dr Kremena Parmakova, head of the communicable diseases surveillance department at the health ministry, told journalists that 70,000 doses of flu vaccine are expected in pharmacies in the middle of November.