Emergency medical services

The Hellenic Air force successfully managed to rescue a mountaineer after the man suffered a heart problem on the ‘Agapitos’ reserve on Mount Olympus, Northern Greece. A military helicopter landed in the remote area, where it was judged the safest course of action was to transport him immediately to the closest hospital.

Ambulances in Bulgaria will reach patients in 8-120 minutes, depending on the urgency of the case, according to a draft new emergency medical care standard published on the website of the Health Ministry.

Workers at Greece?s ambulance service (EKAB) have threatened to hold work stoppages from Tuesday because of unpaid overtime.

The EKAB employees? union claims that its members have not been paid since December for working night shifts and on public holidays.

Greece?s ambulance service, known as EKAB, has 620 vehicles but 130 are out of commission and cannot be repaired, Parliament heard on Thursday.

Deputy Regional Development Minister Denitsa Nikolova announced that Bulgaria will purchase over 300 new ambulances for the needs of the emergency medical service with EU funds.

Nikolova said this in the town of Troyan, where she unveiled the renovated municipal hospital on Tuesday, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reports.

58% of Bulgarian cities, towns, and villages will have access to emergency medical services within 20 minutes by 2020, according to a draft healthcare reform plan of the Health Ministry.

The document was presented Tuesday by Health Minister Petar Moskov at a debate on urgent healthcare sector reform organized by investor.bg.

A Roma person beat an emergency medic in Pernik, demanding that he revives his already deceased wife, reports the Club Z website, quoting the police.

Bulgaria's Health Minister Petar Moskov has warned that emergency medical teams will not respond to calls in Roma neighborhoods until their safety is guaranteed.

In a Sunday interview for bTV he claimed that 174 out of a total of 225 attacks against doctors, paramedics, and ambulance drivers had happened in such neighborhoods.

The use of transparent plastic sheets to line the cabins of EKAB emergency ambulances has been included in the list of precautionary measures to be taken in the eventuality of EKAB ambulance crews being called to handle a suspected case of Ebola.

Public hospitals, health centers and ambulance services will be operating with emergency skeleton staff on Wednesday as workers join a nationwide 24-hour strike organized by civil servants' union ADEDY.