Cross-checks in health care will cover the whole country after the raid on St George university hospital in Plovdiv, prime minister Rumen Radev told a cabinet meeting today. The government also approved a proposal to spend money on five more surface-to-air missile systems. Radev expects the contract to be signed within weeks. See our original report: 12m euro from NHIF for 3 years: 10 medics detained in Plovdiv.

Prosecutors and police carried out the raid early this week. Radev praised the health ministry, the interior ministry, the prosecutor's office and the State Agency for National Security (DANS) for it. He said they had uncovered abuse involving clinical pathways, clinical trials, costly drugs and sick leave.

Radev said people have talked for a long time about big abuses and the draining of the National Health Insurance Fund. The government's job, he said, is to expose and stop them. He said changes to the Public Procurement Act are ready, and the cabinet wants them to curb the draining of the fund.

Next year's budget will raise pay for young doctors, Radev said. He added that the government is working to help them advance in their careers faster.

Radev thanked the crew of the Bulgarian ship DIOSCURIA, which helped sailors in distress in the Black Sea. He also thanked the navy, the air force, the Border Police, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Varna and the medical teams. He said the rescue proves that human life is the highest value for Bulgaria. It also shows, he said, that Bulgaria can search for and save people in an emergency in its exclusive economic zone, under international conventions.

On defence, Radev spoke about the Consultative Council for National Security, which president Iliana Yotova has called. "It must not turn into a stage for pre-election demagogy. There is no place for hysteria," he said. He said security calls for a cool head and sound judgment.

Radev recalled that in 2023, under the caretaker cabinet, defence minister Dimitar Stoyanov added the purchase of high-end unmanned aerial systems to the investment programme for modernising the Bulgarian army. The drones are meant to watch Bulgaria's whole exclusive economic zone. "Many governments came and went after that, and the result is absolutely nothing – zero," Radev said.

Now, with Stoyanov again as minister, the document is ready and has been sent to leading global companies, and the procedure has begun. Radev said defence against drones in the air and at sea is hard to build and does not happen overnight. It takes time, consistency, a systematic approach and a lot of money.

Stoyanov also served as defence minister in the caretaker cabinet that Radev appointed. On his initiative, Bulgaria was among the first countries to join the European Sky Shield Initiative in 2022. So far Bulgaria has one contract for one IRIS-T system, which is not enough to cover its territory.

Radev said the contract for the five new systems must guarantee the protection of Bulgarian airspace and add to NATO's defence. He said stronger defence must go together with efforts to find a diplomatic solution. In his view, money spent on war and endless rearming, in which systems constantly have to be renewed, costs far more than diplomacy and the search for lasting peace. He said the cabinet will continue in this direction.