The profession of paramedic: Fast, brave, skilled, and... often undervalued

Friday, Mar 21, 2025

Mediapool

Bulgaria underutilizes its large paramedic workforce, with only a small fraction actively employed despite training numbers.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Despite a chronic shortage of medical personnel, especially in emergency medical services, Bulgaria has not effectively utilized the large workforce potential of paramedics for years. According to Ivan Pehlikovska, chair of the Union of Paramedics in Bulgaria, there are about 2800 trained paramedics at third and fourth levels, but only about 400 are working, mainly in emergency medical centers. There are also paramedics working in the fire department as mountain rescuers, cave rescuers, water rescuers, and in hospital emergency departments.

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