Bulgaria plans to merge its 27 regional emergency medical centres into the air ambulance centre, which would be renamed the National Emergency Medical Centre. The Health Ministry proposes this in a draft government decree published on its website.

The draft is open to public comment for one month, until 3 December 2026.

Bulgaria now has one emergency centre in each of its 27 regions, plus a separate air ambulance centre. All of them are separate legal entities. The new body would also take in the National Centre for Training and Qualification in Emergency Medical Care, named after Prof. Dr Milan Milanov. The number of legal entities would fall from 29 to one.

The changes are part of a reform of the Health Ministry's administration and of a new set-up for emergency care, including air ambulances. Health minister Katya Ivkova sets out the reasons in a report.

The draft says the aim is for emergency care to have one organisation, one management and one budget. Legal and financial responsibility would sit with the National Centre, and each local centre would no longer run its own administration. Medics would keep working where they are, in the National Centre's regional units.

All the emergency centres, including the air ambulance, now have 7,227 staff posts, and the Prof. Dr Milan Milanov training centre has 5. After the merger, the National Centre would have 7,032 posts. In her report, Ivkova writes that spending on staff in 2027 will not change.

The minister first spoke about merging ground and air emergency care in August. She said then that the two were joining so people would not face delays when they need help. She added that only management and administration would be combined, and no centre or branch in Bulgaria would close.

The day before, the minister opened the 28th meeting of the Alliance for Research in pre-hospital emergency and intensive care medicine. There she said that emergency care that works well, is stable and is within reach of everyone needs modern buildings, equipment and technology, but also money for medics, for research and for international cooperation.