Bulgarian mountains, local doctor still on call at 90

In Bulgaria’s mountains, a local doctor is still on call at 90, reflecting how rural healthcare is coping with doctor shortages. Kiril Apostolov turned 90 in May and still climbs a steep street in Skrat, in southwestern Bulgaria near the border with Greece and North North Macedonia, to see patients almost every day. The practice is driven by need: in 2023, 54.5% of doctors in the EU’s poorest country were aged 55 or older, the highest share in the bloc, according to Eurostat. Apostolov, who has more than 1,500 patients, begins work around 7:00 a.m. from Petrich, driving about 16 kilometres to open his surgery at 8:00 a.m. Bulgaria has the EU’s lowest life expectancy in 2024 at 75.8 years, and high preventable mortality tied partly to later diagnoses.