NON-CONVENTIONAL METHODS OF MEDICINE IN BULGARIA – PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION
Journal Title: Българско списание за обществено здраве (Bulgarian Journal of Public Health) - Year 2019, Vol 0, Issue 1
Abstract
A review of the regulations in Bulgaria in the field of non-conventional methods for beneficial impact on individual health (NMBIIH) has been made: Health Act (HA) - Chapter 6, and Ordinance No 7 of 1 March 2005 on the Requirements to the Activities of Persons Exercising Nonconventional methods for a beneficial impact on individual health. Non-conventional methods allowed for use in our country include: use of non-medicinal products of organic and mineral origin; use of non-traditional physical methods; homeopathy; acupuncture and acupressure; iris, pulse and auricular methods of investigation; diet and healing starvation. The right to practice these methods, with the exception of the homeopathy method, have Bulgarian citizens and citizens of a Member State of the European Union, the other countries of the European Economic Area and Switzerland, those persons who are mentally healthy, have not been convicted of a general offense and meet the one of the following conditions: they have a Master‘s degree in the professional fields of Medicine, Dentistry or Pharmacy; have a „professional“ or „bachelor“ degree in the „Health Care“ professional field; have a diploma for completed secondary education and a certificate of successful education, not less than 4 semesters in a higher medical school, under conditions and by an order determined by an ordinance of the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education and Science (this regulation has not been upgraded for 14 years in the State Gazette). Masters in „Medicine“ or „Dental medicine“ have the right to practice the homeopathy method. Some of the problems in the Bulgarian legislation concerning the NMBIIH are as follows: Chapter Six of the Health Act (HA) does not include all nonconventional methods that are practiced in Bulgaria; no training on individual non-conventional methods is provided and therefore the safety of the patients applying them cannot be guaranteed; the HA empowers persons with secondary education to apply the invasive method „acupuncture“, without training in the method; there are mutually exclusive clauses in the current legislation in force in Bulgaria –the Health Act and the Ordinance No. 7 of the Ministry of Health. Conclusion: It is necessary, in the interest of the safety of patients using non-conventional health services in the country, to set up a working group to prepare a Draft Amendment to Chapter 6 of the Health Act and its subordinate statutes.
Authors and Affiliations
Iliyana Yaneva, Tatyana Karanesheva
Keywords
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