Less than 10% of pharmacies in Bulgaria have problems with dispensing medicines through the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), said the manager of the NHIF Petko Stefanovski.

The problems are local and related to the software of specific pharmacies. Patients have reported difficulties in obtaining medicines since the beginning of the year.

Petko Stefanovski, manager of the NHIF: “The servers of the NHIF and the National Health Information System (NHIS) are working without a problem. There are problems in less than 10% of pharmacies that have a contract with the NHIF. Over 400,000 prescriptions have been dispensed since the beginning of the year.”

To deal with the problem, the NHIF is taking the following measures:

  • IT specialists from the Fund will assist pharmacists in the problematic pharmacies.
  • Representatives of “Information Services” will also assist.
  • Inspectors from the control will guarantee the rights of insured citizens.

Information Services explained that the software market for pharmacies is free. Ivaylo Stoychev from “Information Services” pointed out that the changes related to the euro have affected the work of some pharmacies.

Ivaylo Stoychev, project manager at “Information Services”: “We are in constant contact with the software developers. We have provided assistance when needed.”

In most Sofia pharmacies, patients do not encounter difficulties. The manager of the Health Fund gave a deadline of 48 hours to resolve the problems.