site.btaBulgaria Had 391 Physicians per 100,000 Inhabitants in 2012

Bulgaria Had 391 Physicians per 100,000 Inhabitants in 2012, Compared with 614 in Greece

Sofia, July 17 (BTA) - Bulgaria had 391 professionally active or licensed physicians per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012, according to a report on healthcare personnel in the EU member states and other European countries published by Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Union) on July 16. This compares with 352 physicians per 100 000 inhabitants in 2002.

In this ranking, Bulgaria is ahead of most of its neighbours, including Turkey (173 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants), Romania (239) and Serbia (309).

The ratio of professionally active or licensed physicians per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012 was highest in Greece (614), followed by Austria (490), Lithuania and Norway (422 each), Portugal (419) and Switzerland and Sweden (392 each).

Between 2002 and 2012, only two countries recorded a decrease in the ratio of professionally active or licensed physicians: Hungary (decreasing from 319 to 309 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants) and Poland (from 230 to 221).

BULGARIA'S MEDICAL PROFESSION DOMINATED BY FEMALES

Bulgarian national statistical data show that at the end of 2014 there were 28,842 practising physicians in the country, including 16,015 female ones (55.5 per cent) and 12,827 male ones (44.5 per cent).

General practitioners accounted for the largest share of Bulgaria's practising physicians at the end of 2014, at 16 per cent (over 4,500 people). The second-largest group were anesthesiologists and intensive care specialists (over 1,500), followed by pediatricians (1,459), obstetricians and gynecologists (1,449) and surgeons (1,426).

The largest age group were physicians aged between 45 and 54, at 10,301 (or 35.7 per cent of the total). There were also 2,356 physicians aged under 35 (accounting for about 8 per cent of the total) and 3,557 physicians aged 65 and over (about 12 per cent), national statistical data show.

OVER 1,800 PHYSICIANS LEAVE BULGARIA IN FOUR YEARS

High demand for healthcare personnel in some EU member states and high pay rates have caused a drain of qualified medical personnel in various directions across EU borders, the Eurostat report says.

The Bulgarian Medical Association estimates that over 1,800 Bulgarian physicians have left the country to work abroad over the last four years. This includes 540 physicians in 2014, about 400 in 2013, 447 in 2012 and over 500 in 2011. About 300 highly qualified medical specialists have left Bulgaria so far this year.

Some 30 per cent of Bulgarian physicians who have found jobs in the United Kingdom have been given senior positions.