Hi every one , as anyone that has read any of my posts will know,( I have property in Bulgaria and my wife is Bulgarian) it is my intention to move to Bulgaria within the next couple of years. Whoever I have just found something out that my put a question mark on this plan. After being on this planet for 58 years i have just discovered that
A) i was born with only one kidney and
B) the remaining one is only working at 21%. Although I feel absolutly fine and have no problems at the moment , apparently as you get older you loose 1% a year and when it reaches below 15% dialysis and maybe at a later stage transplant will kick in .Luckily i have lead (and still do) a fairly healthy lifestyle, and it could take a long while to start to give me problems, it is a factor that I have to know consider.
So my question to anyone that may know, is what is the renal care like in Bulgaria, yes i have many friends there but having only just found this out, I am trying to gather as much information as possible, so if anybody has any information I would be most grateful.

Hi sorry to read about this but I suppose there are all sorts of things that go on in our bodies that we don't know about until we have some sort of check and usually its not not related to the reason we went for the test in the first place and some other problem? are found.
I have looked around for you and maybe this isn't what you want as I think you are asking for personal experiences but it might help anyway some of the information I have found is here.

BULGARIAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY

President:
Boriana Kiperova, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor
Clinic of Nephrology
University Hospital Alexandrovska
1, Sv Georgi Sofiiski Str.
1431 Sofia, BULGARIA
Fax: 00359 2 9230708
Mobile tel: 00359 887810885
E-mail: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Secretary:
Boris Bogov, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor
Clinic of Nephrology
University Hospital Alexandrovska
1, Sv Georgi Sofiiski Str.
1431 Sofia, BULGARIA
Tel. 00359 2 9230263
Mobile tel: 00359 888573027
E-mail: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Secretary-treasurer:
Daniela Monova, , M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor
Clinic of Internal Diseases
Medical Institute
79, Skobelev Bvd
1606 Sofia, BULGARIA
Mobile tel: 00359 888268575
E-mail: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation
Official Publication of the Bulgarian Society of Nephrology
Editor-in-Chief:
Raina Robeva, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor
University Hospital Sv Ivan Rilski
Clinic of Internal Diseases, Nephrology and Dialysis
15, Prof. Ivan Geshov Bvd
1431 Sofia, BULGARIA
Tel. 00359 2 8510846
E-mail: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]




Some clinics in Bulgaria

- Department of Nephrology and Transplantation, University Hospital Alexandrovska "
, Sofia
- Department of Nephrology, University Hospital "
Queen Joanna"
, Medical University, Sofia Clinical Centre of Nephrology
- Department of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Alexandrovska "
, Sofia
- Department of Nephrology, University Hospital St. George's Medical University, Plovdiv
- Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, University Hospital St. Marina "
, Varna
- Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, University Hospital - Pleven
- Dialysis Clinic, University Hospital Alexandrovska "
, Sofia


UK Information

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nice one Gimp....

Nice one gimp, very informative.

My experience of the BG health system is very good.

I had a problem over 2 years ago and which was a water problem. Went to see a GP and the same day went to see a Urologist. Had an ultra sound at the consultation and problem diagnosed as well. So if you have a problem I feel fairly confident that it would be sorted very quickly. The biggest difference is that you have to pay although it only cost me 20nb for the consultation plus another 100nb for medication.

The problem was kidney related so hope this helps.

good luck.

tony

Thanks for the information Gimp, and Tonyb60,
I will look into it all before i make any firm decisions, but I think i will probably continue with my plans that i have been putting into place for the last couple of years. Maybe i will not cut complete ties with the UK, the original plan was to sell the house and live on the proceeds but maybe I could rent it out instead.

your quite right, you need to look at all options. you need to talk to the international pension service at newcastle. tel. 0044 191 21 87280. you may qualify for the E121 if you have a medical condition under pension age. they will tell you if the uk will continue providing health care in the uk or if they will fund medical costs in bulgaria. if you are not E121, you will have to pay for treatment and it can be costly.

starlite wrote:

your quite right, you need to look at all options. you need to talk to the international pension service at newcastle. tel. 0044 191 21 87280. you may qualify for the E121 if you have a medical condition under pension age. they will tell you if the uk will continue providing health care in the uk or if they will fund medical costs in bulgaria. if you are not E121, you will have to pay for treatment and it can be costly.

Thank you starlite this information is very much appreciated

your welcome gimp. there were some changes to eu legislation in june, in which eu members could choose where to have treatment (including the uk). I dont fully understand this yet, but i am looking into it.

Look forward to reading more about it starlite

Cross border health care. in 2008 the european courts upheld a decision to allow patients a choice of where to have medical treatment in any eu country.
The uk did allow choice but only in the uk. this march the uk extended this to allow your choice of treatment in any eu country, provided that it does not cost more than the nhs treatment, you pay travel and hotel costs, but thats all.

So, if your in bulgaria with the E121, your treatment in bulgaria should be paid for by the uk. this is what im trying to get confirmed.

Sorry to be cheeky do you have a link to thew legislation?

there is plenty of info about health care in other eu countries on the web. i got this information in june when the pensions department issued the new cards. i asked newcastle for an explanation, they ( and they were not that sure either ) explained that before march those with E121 status (bulgaria) were registered on bulgarias insurance contibutions and were treated under the bulgarian health system. in march this changed, if your pension comes from the uk, the uk is now responsible for your health care.
this is my understanding of the changes, its so new.