Police officers will be able to give first aid with an automated external defibrillator kept in their patrol cars. Parliament passed the change at first reading. Progressive Bulgaria tabled the amendments to the Health Act.

This article follows our earlier report that the health committee backed letting police use defibrillators from their patrol cars. The committee passed the bill at first reading with 18 votes in favour.

In the chamber, the text won 165 votes in favour, 6 against and no abstentions. MPs also approved, with 172 votes in favour, changes from Democratic Bulgaria. These close gaps in the electronic system for medical assessment and give inspectors tools to check illegal rulings of permanent incapacity for work.

A bill from Vazrazhdane was rejected: 8 MPs voted for it, 20 voted against and 138 abstained. It would have brought back the option of driving a person in an emergency straight to the nearest hospital, instead of waiting for an ambulance crew after a call to 112.

Vazrazhdane says the bill would restore a practice from 20 years ago. Petar Petrov gave the example of a man who died after a fall and a blow to the head near the Sheynovo maternity hospital in Sofia. He said the ambulance arrived after 30 minutes. Petrov also voiced suspicions of lobbying behind the ruling party's defibrillator bill.

Georgi Petrov of Progressive Bulgaria replied that Vazrazhdane's proposal would not allow hospital doctors to leave during working hours to help outside the hospital. He said the case Petar Petrov cited was an isolated one, and that no rule now bans taking a person in an emergency to the nearest hospital. Nor is there a ban on giving first aid at the scene of an incident, he added. Petrov said he would go out himself.

Alexander Simidchiev of Democratic Bulgaria said that under the old text, anyone had to notify the nearest emergency centre, hospital or police station, but did not have to transport the injured person. He said the new law keeps that order but routes it through the 112 phone line.

Mesut Rushid of Progressive Bulgaria said patrol cars were chosen because police are the first to arrive at the scene of an incident. He believes the success rate will be 1% higher when Interior Ministry staff use defibrillators.

Lachezar Ivanov of GERB-SDS said Vazrazhdane's bill was poorly drafted in legal terms, and that the change is tied to the single European emergency number 112. He said defibrillators could save more lives. Modern devices need no specialist medical training, he said, and it is enough to know left from right and follow the instructions.