Doctors from the region of Veliko Turnovo in central Bulgaria plan to stage a protest on July 1 against the removal of the pensioners’ consumers’ fee, paid whenever a patient visits a doctor's office, that came into force on the same day.

The doctors stopped working from 8am to 9am and between 1pm and 2pm, accepting only emergency calls during this time, private broadcaster bTV reported.

The medics are also planning to complain to the commission against discrimination, as according to them the age cannot be the only criteria, according to which to remove the consumers’ fee. They also want a 40 per cent increase of all payments done in accordance to contracts with the National Health Insurance Fund

All general practitioners started preparation for national protests, the chairperson of the doctors association Lyubomir Kirov said. On June 19, doctors in second biggest Bulgarian city of Plovdiv held a strike as well, cancelling work for one hour a day, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik reported.

The medics unhappy that their demands for legislative changes go unheard in Parliament. According to the doctors, changes such as abolishing the consumers' fee will cause their financial collapse, offices throughout the country already closing down.

According to Kirov, removing the consumers’ fee will cause losses of 30 million leva to general practicioners and although the law foresees the medics to be compensated from the state budget, the regulation that is expected to settle the payments has not been approved yet. The doctors also believe that removing the fee will lead to a spike in demand for their services and a waiting list for patients have to be introduced as well.