Associate Professor Angel Kunchev, Bulgaria’s Chief State Health Inspector, has submitted a request to Prime Minister Rumen Radev to be dismissed from his position, citing both his retirement age and his disagreement with a planned reform of the country’s public health control system.
Kunchev, who has held the post since 2011, said he regretted leaving the public health system at a difficult time but could not remain silent while changes he considers unnecessary and harmful were being prepared. In his resignation letter, he said the reform could seriously disrupt the work of the regional health inspectorates and national public health centers.
"I am not pleased to leave the public health system at this difficult time, but it is impossible for me to observe impartially, let alone participate in the process of its destruction," Kunchev wrote.
He said the reform was beginning with a system that had functioned relatively steadily and had demonstrated its ability to respond during major crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, refugee crises, threats from particularly dangerous infectious diseases and national epidemics.
Kunchev questioned why public health inspectorates were being targeted for restructuring when, in his view, the health system faced more serious and urgent problems. He pointed to high out-of-pocket payments by patients, difficulties accessing medicines, what he described as aggressive and unjustified expansion of the hospital network, and problems with the disability assessment system.
