INDICATORS

BULGARIA
Data availability by Country Report: Only about half (52%) of the ECHI shortlist
indicators are available in international databases, which is below European average.
The ECHI shortlist sections for which there are most data missing are Health Status
and Health Services.
Data availability by ECHIM Survey: 73% of the ES indicators are available at the
national level, which is close to European average. Reason for not scoring higher is
mainly due to lack of data on musculoskeletal symptoms (Health Status section) and
screenings (Health Care section).
Data availability in European context: Data availability in Bulgaria is worse than
European average, mainly because of low data availability by CR. However, data
availability by ES is equivalent to European average, although there is a lack of some
of the registers (e.g. accidents, ambulatory and primary care registers). Also the lack
of nationally representative HES is quite typical in European context. Lack of data on
screenings is not that exceptional.
Overall situation of data sources: The most important bodies gathering data and
producing health statistics are National Statistics Institute (NSI; www.nsi.bg), National
Centre of Health Information (NCHI; www.nchi.government.bg) and Bulgarian
National Cancer Register (BNCR; www.onco-bg.com). Record linkage is possible as
Bulgaria uses a 10 digit unique personal identifier (EGN – Edinen Grajdanski Nomer).
Data by socio-economic status is lacking. Data at regional level is scarce. Data for most
of the indicators that can be derived from HIS (NSI) are available, as well as their time
trends. Of note is that some of the hospital data missing in the international databases
are actually available. There has not been nationally representative HES in Bulgaria
(only CINDI), as is the case in most of the European countries.
Health reporting: Health report (Zdraveopazvane, “Healthcare”, 2006) by NSI and
NCHI is published annually, but not in English. Annual Public Health Statistics are
available also in English in printed form and online at the NCHI website.
Main problems: As the EGN contains the date of birth and sex of the person in an
obvious format, some people are against using it, which may affect record linking
possibilities in the future.
Ongoing and/or expected improvements: ECHI shortlist already being implemented
at least partly.
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