Suchergebnisse

Informal patient payments are deeply rooted in Central and Eastern European countries. Despite the socio-political changes in the health care sectors after 1990s and the subsequent health care reforms, informal payments for health care services continue to serve patients` and physicians` interests. These payments also fill gaps in health care funding in this European region. Nevertheless, unofficial payments are not a desirable payment channel. They lack transparency and distort the efficiency and equity in health care provision. Still, the successful elimination of these payments will depend on the public attitude towards these payments. This study aims to compare public attitudes towards informal patient payments and payment experience in six Central and Eastern European: Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. The data have been collected in 2010 in nation-wide representative surveys using an identical standardized question- naire administrated via face-to-face interviews. We have collected about 1000 questionnaires in each country. The results show that a major group of respondents in each country expresses a negative attitude towards both informal cash payments and in-kind gifts. 208, 187, and 174 respondents paid informally for out-patient service in Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary respectively. We also analyse the relation between public attitudes and respondents` past experience with informal payments, e.g. whether they have paid informally payment for out-patient service used last year. In Bulgaria and Poland, negative attitude is mostly observed among those who have not paid informally. The existence of positive and indifferent attitudes towards informal pay- ments as reported in our study, indicates a challenge for policy makers in Central and Eastern European countries. The acceptance of government initiatives aimed at the elimination of informal payments will largely depend on the governments` ability to create a social resistance towards these payments.

In the implementation of two EU co-financed 5-year programs in the period 2009-2020, it was confirmed that oral vaccination against rabies with vaccine baits was successful in eliminating the virus in terrestrial wildlife, both in foxes, jackals and raccoon dogs. In most EU countries, It has been confirmed that oral vaccination against rabies using vaccine baits containing live attenuated virus has been successful in reducing and eliminating cases of rabies the disease has already been successfully eradicated, but in some countries further efforts are needed, especially in areas near the EU's eastern borders. The purpose of this opinion is to assess the need for Bulgaria to continue the implementation of a long-term program for oral vaccination of foxes and wild canids against rabies within the next period of implementation of the national Program for prevention, surveillance, control and eradication of rabies in Bulgaria in 2022-2024. This national program is part of the European Union's (EU) policy on the eradication of rabies in wild animals. To this end, the European Commission (EC) has co-financed fox vaccination programs for many years to eliminate the risk of spreading the rabies virus to humans and other domestic animals. The results obtained so far unequivocally show that oral vaccination of foxes in Bulgaria has a very good effect, and that the medium-term goal of reducing rabies cases has been achieved. However, the rabies virus is still circulating through its sylvatic (forest) cycle in Eastern Europe and Bulgaria's neighboring and near far way countries - Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Anatolian Turkey. To this end, it is necessary to ensure, through EU co-financed programs, a longer-term strategy, persistence and continuity of vaccination campaigns in the application of oral fox vaccination and unconditional cross-border cooperation with the Balkan countries and their competent veterinary services to achieve the ultimate goal - eradication of rabies from the territory of ...