Re: Not received reply to my letter of 09-Jul-2003 ?. to you concerning not clarified questions after inspections performed after an alerting letter about risk of infection with hepatitis for foreign patients in St. Marina Hospital HD unit, Varna
Dear Mr Minister of MH and Mr Premier of R. of Bulgaria,
Herewith I inform you that I still do not have a reply to the letter which I sent you on 9-Jul-2003. I have received two almost identical letters from the administration of Mr President of R. of Bulgaria sent to Mr Minister of Health (copy to me) – of 18-Jul-2003 and 22-Aug-2003, respectively, but they are not a reply to my letter.
Please, pay attention to the fact that the case concerns something too serious to be ignored, viz.: right of safe and documented treatment and clear information both for Bulgarian and foreign patients during their stay in a Bulgarian medical establishment
My letter of 9-Jul-2003 started like this:
"I am addressing you not because I have not addressed the competent bodies in the relevant way but because I have not been satisfied by the measures taken by these bodies. When it concerns human life and health, even the slightest flaw could be fatal, and the bodies who took up the inspections in follow-up of my alert seem to have allowed certain negligence in their work which I shall try to prove herewith.
By the end of May, two inspections were made in the abovementioned HD unit in follow-up of my alert (see Supplement 1. Risk of infection with hepatitis for foreign citizens) whose results were submitted to me (see Supplement 2. Inspections performed) by the Minister of Health through a copy of his letter to the Chairman of Parliament Commission of Health (see Supplement 3) with enclosed results from the inspections and a contract concluded for dialyzing of 16 Belgian citizens in the unit in question (see Supplement 4). Minister B. Finkov writes in his letter that 'the results from the two inspections unequivocally show that there are no cases of medical malpractice in the treatment and epidemiologic regimes in the clinic of hemodialysis...' "
Further in my letter followed over 100 concrete and clear questions still awaiting their replies. These questions could not claim they exhaust completely the topic concerned.
I ask you to apologize my not sending you again all the pages of my letter of 9-Jul-2003 nor the eleven supplements; I rely on that the materials sent to you are safely stored. In case, for any reasons, you do not have them at your disposal. please, let me know so that I should send them to you again.
To the replies of the questions posed by me in my letter of 9-Jul-2003 interest showed a former patient of mine who certifies with his signature at the end of this letter his personal concern as a hemodialysis patient. I dare add that perhaps more of my former patients would show interest although they do not certify it with their signatures as the problems pointed to in my letter of 9-Jul-2003 are, ultimately, problems of the hemodialysis patients.
I should like emphasize again that I do not pursue any personal benefit or punishment of possibly guilty persons but I would feel morally satisfied to learn that the problems having caused me to send my alerting letter will be resolved and such a case will never happen again.
On the next page is the end of my letter to you of 9-Jul-2003, whereby this time, besides my signature, there is the signature of my former patient with which the same certifies his personal interest to the replies of the most of the questions I posed in my letter to you of 9-Jul-2003.
"I do not seek punishment for the guilty persons but will feel moral satisfaction to learn that the problems having caused me to send my alerting letter will be resolved and such a case will never happen again. I ask you only for the well-being of the patients – regardless ours or foreign. I left my job with a 30-day notification to my employer (see Supplement 11.) and have no intention to return after all humiliation to which I was exposed but diseased people remained there, people with whom I could not even say good-bye to, and highly qualified colleagues who do their best in serving the patients despite the shortage of information about their working conditions and epidemiologic requirements. It is because of them that I am asking you."
Reneta T. Stoyanova, Personal ID # […], ex nurse with over 25 years of work experience, having worked almost 16 years in the St. Marina Hospital HD unit in Varna: from 1-Oct-1987 to 1-Jul-2003.
I certify with my signature that I find the answers to the most of the questions posed by R. Stoyanova concerning my safe treatment and my regular testing as well as the rhythmic supply with life supporting medicines for me in person as a hemodialysis patient.
29-Aug-2003
Stilian Dichev Stoyanov, a hemodialysis patient, Personal ID # […]
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