Dr. Stanimir Hasurdjiev is one of the founders and the chairperson of the National Patients’ Organization (NPO) – the biggest union of patients’ organizations in Bulgaria, recognized as a national representative organization for protection of the rights of patients in Bulgaria. NPO comprises more than 80 organizations from the whole country, representing patients with different socially important and rare diseases.

In 2005, Dr. Hasurdjiev initiated the establishment of the National Association for Fighting Hepatitis “Hepasist” and since then until November 2009, he took the post of secretary, after which he was chosen as a chairperson of the organization, the position that he currently holds. In 2011, 2015 and 2016, he represented the Bulgarian patients as a member of the Oversight Council of the National Health Care Fund and since then he has participated in multiple working groups, sessions and forums, focused on health care.

From April 2011 until December 2013, he was the executive director of the European Liver Patients’ Association (ELPA) and until March 2015, he was a member of its Administrative Board.

In 2013, Dr. Hasurdjiev was elected as a member of the Administrative Board of the European Patients’ Forum (EPF), a Pan-European organization, whose main aims are the empowerment of patients and their inclusion in the development of innovative health policies.

Since 2012, he has been actively involved in the topic concerning the inequalities in the health care of the member states in the EU. As a result, in December 2014, the partnership on European level for access to high quality health care – Patient Access Partnership – was set up by the National Patients’ Organization and the European Patients’ Forum, in which Hasurdjiev took the position Secretary General of the Partnership.

Following the model of the European Partnership, on 26 March 2015 the Partnership for Health was officially started – a consultative organ of the Council of Ministers, in which representatives of state institutions, professional organizations, the medical community, and organizations of health care providers, industry, and patient organizations participate. Chairperson of the Partnership is the Minister of Health Care and Dr. Hasurdjiev was elected as a Secretary. The Partnership in Bulgaria will assess and examine the obstacles and barriers in the health care system in order to improve the attendance of patients, the drug policies, to keep medical professionals in Bulgaria, and to improve the management of state resources in health care.