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Description
The National Patients’ Organization (NPO) is a nationally representative organization whose members are 55 patients’ organizations and which strives to build and establish a strong and united patients’ movement. Despite its experience and opportunities, NPO, just like the other national patients’ organizations, struggles to develop an active civil dialogue in healthcare. Citizen participation in policy-setting is not sufficient, as it has become evident during the COVID-19 crisis. There are no clear and sustainable mechanisms for citizen and patient involvement in decision-making in healthcare. This is due to the low interest on behalf of the state to involve the civil sector as a partner, the small capacity of the sector and the lack of digital tools for citizen counselling and debate. The main goal of the project is to strengthen civic involvement in healthcare by developing digital opportunities for debate at national level and building local advocacy capacity in nine districts of the country: Blagoevgrad, Bourgas, Vidin, Vratsa, Montana, Shumen, Smolyan, Haskovo and Pleven. The project will have a direct impact on active citizenship through a number of activities such as setting up a coalition, a national survey, development and implementation of advocacy maps, training of local leaders, building an e-platform for citizen communication and presentation of a package of legislative amendments and the project will also include the vulnerable community of people with chronic conditions. To achieve its goals, the project will rely on leading experts from Bulgaria as well as international support for the introduction of contemporary European solutions for involvement of patients.The project will boost citizen awareness, provide space for patients’ groups to advocate for quality healthcare, encourage putting forward legislative amendments in a top-down manner and help guarantee the place of the patient – citizen in the institutional forms of decision-making.
Summary of project results
The project supported the strengthening of civil participation in healthcare by developing digital opportunities for national-level debate and building local advocacy capacity in nine regions of the country: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Vidin, Vratsa, Sliven, Shumen, Smolyan, Haskovo, and Pleven.
The tools used in the project included the creation of a coalition, a national survey, the development and implementation of advocacy maps, training of local leaders, the creation of an electronic platform for civic communication, the presentation of a package of legislative changes, and the inclusion of the vulnerable community of people with chronic illnesses.The project was highly successful in building local advocacy capacity through the training of nine regional coordinators to conduct local surveys, create regional advocacy maps, and undertake activities to improve local healthcare. Citizens, organizations, municipal authorities, healthcare professionals, and other structures were involved. A digital platform for health debate was created, which is set to expand further.
Working with local activists demonstrated that it could yield excellent results for solving problems and initiating local-level initiatives. Consequently, the best impact on the target groups—namely patient and civic organizations—was achieved at the local level. Twelve proposals for legislative and/or regulatory changes were generated, two of which were at the local level and ten at the national level.
Following a proposal initiated by the regional representative, the Municipality of Blagoevgrad amended the Ordinance on the conditions and procedures for the stay and parking of vehicles on the territory of Blagoevgrad to increase the free parking time for people with TELK (Medical Expert Commission). The Municipality of Haskovo made budget changes to provide free public transport rights for TELK individuals, members of patient organizations, again based on the local project coordinator’s proposal. Actions have been taken to create a registry of people with Hashimoto''s thyroiditis in the Burgas region.