Number of Young Doctors Entering the Profession Is Growing

As a result of the increase in doctors’ salaries, there are now far more young doctors under 35 in Hungary than doctors over 65, i.e. doctors of retirement age, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior told M1 news channel on Tuesday.

Bence Rétvári called the rejuvenation of the age group of doctors a positive vision for the future, saying “this shows that there are an increasing number of young people in the health sector, and that is why the health sector has a future.” He noted that the years before 2010, were all about how many doctors were going abroad, how many were applying for work permits abroad,

but when a multi-year measure was introduced around 2020, that would increase doctors’ salaries several-fold, that changed, with a rise in the number of young people.”

“There are more doctors aged 30 to 35 than 65 to 70. The largest age group is under 30, with 5,261 doctors,” said the Secretary of State.

Rétvári stressed that compared to 2010, the government is spending 2,500 billion forints (6.2 billion euros) more on healthcare this year, a “radical increase.” Speaking about salaries, he said that in 2010, a doctor starting his career earned around 130,000 forints (324 euros) – today it is almost 700,000 forints (1,750 euros). While a doctor who has been in the profession for 30 years had an average salary of around 230,000 forints (570 euros) in 2010, this year it is already over 2 million forints (4,990 euros), he explained.

Rétvári was also a guest on Kossuth Radio’s “Good Morning, Hungary!” program, where he spoke about how he had managed to abolish the practice of paying gratuity, something that no government had managed for 70 years. This was also part of the reason why doctors preferred to go abroad to practice medicine, because there they received their income in salaries, not in gratuity, he added.

In Hungary, doctors are paid four to five times the average salary, which shows that doctors have a higher financial standing than in almost any other country in Europe,”

the State Secretary stressed. He cited the example of Germany, where the figure is 3.3 times the average salary, and France, where it is 2.3 times.

Rétvári pointed out that in addition to raising wages, improving working conditions is also a very important factor. Speaking about developments in the health sector, he said that 91 hospitals and 100 ambulance stations have been partially or fully renovated, 50 operating rooms have been modernized, more than 20 new ones have been built, and Hungary has state-of-the-art surgical and robotic surgery equipment.

Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay