Balgarianovinite.com The draft government decree establishing an interdepartmental coordination council on the National Children’s Hospital has been published on the Health Ministry’s website for a two-week public consultation.
Speaking at a briefing at the Council of Ministers a few days ago, Health Minister Katya Ivkova said that the National Children’s Hospital project is considered a project of national importance. To restart the project and ensure that the Health Ministry assumes full responsibility for its implementation, an interdepartmental council comprising several cabinet ministers will soon be established.
According to the explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft, the past three years have seen little progress in the work of the Health Investment Company for Children’s Hospital, in fulfilling its sole purpose, namely, organizing and overseeing the design, construction, and commissioning of the nationally significant project of building a national multidisciplinary children’s hospital.
In light of the current circumstances and the project’s significant delay relative to the planned implementation schedule, the Ministry argues that targeted crisis-response measures are needed to accelerate progress while remaining fully compliant with Bulgaria’s legal framework. At an operational meeting on July 29, the government reviewed and approved a report by the Health Minister outlining the current state of the project and proposing a crisis-driven reorganization of the Health Investment Company for Children’s Hospital in order to enable it to carry out its core mandate.
The memorandum also notes that implementation of the project is currently being significantly hampered by ongoing proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court concerning the procurement procedure for selecting the design contractor. The primary focus of the government’s assessment has been to evaluate the pace of progress and identify opportunities to achieve accelerated milestones and deliver results within the shortest possible timeframe.
It adds that the overall project schedule should be based on realistic deadlines that take into account all factors and the complex procedures required before the children’s hospital can become operational. The memorandum also stresses the need to clearly identify activities that can be carried out in parallel in order to shorten the overall delivery timeline.
The proposed council will serve as an advisory body to the Council of Ministers and will be chaired by the Health Minister. Its role will be to ensure continuous high-level coordination on matters related to the National Children’s Hospital, eliminating cumbersome and time-consuming interdepartmental procedures.
The council is intended to function as a central coordination body capable of making decisions quickly and in one place, thereby preventing administrative delays in the implementation of the project. To that end, its members will include ministers and deputy ministers responsible for various aspects of the hospital’s construction, as well as the executive directors of the Public Procurement Agency and the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency.
Representatives of local government authorities, along with other individuals whose expertise is relevant to items on the council’s agenda, may also participate in its meetings without voting rights. Under the draft decree, neither the chair nor the members of the council, nor any other participants, including members of working groups or external experts, will receive remuneration for their participation.
Responsibility for constructing the National Children’s Hospital currently rests with the Health Investment Company for Children’s Hospital, a state-owned company established in 2020. The company’s mandate is to carry out all legally permitted activities related to organizing and supervising the construction and commissioning of the nationally significant National Multidisciplinary Children’s Hospital. The future hospital is to be built in Sofia’s Gorna Banya borough.
In June, the Health Ministry launched a review of the public procurement procedure for the hospital’s design and architectural supervision after the Commission for Protection of Competition annulled the decision to open the tender. The competition authority found that the procurement documents contained restrictive and disproportionate eligibility requirements for bidders. The tender was originally published in March 2026 before being appealed. Health Ministry Launches Public Consultation on National Children’s Hospital Interdepartmental Coordination Council 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-07-31 16:18:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law