Burnout among medics must be tackled through a steady policy on working conditions, Dr Nikolay Brunzalov, chair of the Bulgarian Medical Union, said at a round table on stress and burnout among health workers.

The Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) organised the event under the project "Together for Sustainable Employment". The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) are partners in the project. The topic was "Stress and burnout among medical specialists – challenges and solutions". Speakers focused on the mental health and wellbeing of the people who look after society's health.

Burnout affects many professions, but it is probably strongest among medics, Brunzalov said. For a long time the issue stayed in the background, because daily work is heavy and people assume a medic must cope at any cost. Staff shortages, paperwork, long hours and ever more frequent attacks on medics have also long been seen as unavoidable parts of the job.

"We cannot have sustainable systems if we wear out the people who keep them running," Brunzalov said.

Dedication to the job is not an endless resource, he said. Burnout is not just a problem for the individual medic. It affects the quality of care, the health system's ability to last and its ability to keep the people it relies on. Brunzalov said working conditions must therefore really change. Prevention needs to be talked about much more and placed at the centre of public attention. The process will be long, but it must start, even with small steps.

"We must find a way to invest in our profession, so that care is sustainable and the job becomes dignified and sought after," said Diana Georgieva, chair of the Bulgarian Association of Health Care Professionals.

Dobri Mitrev, chair of the BIA's management board, said mental health and the labour market matter greatly to employers. In his view, the question is whether anyone looks after the health of medics and the conditions in medical facilities. Mitrev said the talks start a dialogue. It should show whether the right policies exist and whether there are ways to study burnout. It should also become clear whether institutions and employers can diagnose the problem and find ways to deal with it.

Grigor Dimitrov, chief director for "Protection of Employers' Interests" at the BIA, said the association is ready to do what is needed for Bulgarian nurses. He recalled that 30 years ago Bulgaria had 54,000 nurses and 180 hospitals. Now it has more than 350 hospitals and no more than 27,000 nurses in total.