The public health service, modeled after that of the Soviet Union, is based on the premise that the state has the responsibility to provide free health care for the population and that such care should be uniform and readily available. The health service is financed by the state, supervised by the Ministry of Public Health, and administered by the public health departments of the district people's councils. Free health care is available to all citizens; medicine required for outpatient treatment, however, must be paid for by the patient. The cornerstone of the health service is the polyclinic, which provides general and specialized outpatient aid and consultation. Polyclinics may be attached to a hospital or may be independent units serving a designated geographic area. A separate network of polyclinics is attached to industrial mining, transport, and construction enterprises to serve their workers. Each polyclinic is divided into departments for the various specialties in medicine, and each department is staffed by one or more doctors and auxiliary personnel. Not all polyclinics, however, have departments for all the major fields of medicine; many have only sections for internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery. Patients needing consultation or treatment by other specialists are referred to the nearest hospital. The health care provided by the polyclinic was under serious attack in the early 1970s both from the doctors who work there and from the patients. The main problem seemed to be overburdening and inefficiency imposed by the system of health care. One polyclinic in Sofia, for example, was responsible for the health care of 70,000 inhabitants of its area. Its physicians gave routine examinations to prospective students and job applicants, certified the legitimacy of claims for sick leave, and diagnosed and treated all complaints from the common cold to the most serious illness. During four hours each day, patients were seen on a first-come-first-served basis, except in emergencies. Waiting rooms were jammed, and people often waited for hours without seeing a doctor because the allotted time for office consultations had expired before their turn came. Studies have indicated that one physician sees an average of thirty to forty patients in the four-hour period of office consultations, and then one-half again as many in a three-hour period of house calls, which often cover a wide geographic area. The average consultation between doctor and patient is six minutes, a time much too short for proper diagnosis. The result has been frequently wrong diagnosis and wrong or inadequate treatment.