The Ministry of the Interior will not provide details of a study on the transformation of healthcare, which was prepared for them for HUF 277 million. The study has been classified for ten years.
The study on healthcare transformation prepared by Boston Consulting Group Kft. on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior for a net amount of HUF 277 million (EUR 778,000), has not been made public. However, MSZP (Socialist Party) MP Ildikó Bangó Borbély asked for the details of the study in a written query, but Secretary of State Károly Kontrát replied:
…the relevant documents prepared for the government contain decision-making data, which is in accordance with Act CXII of 2011 on the right to information self-determination and freedom of information. They are not public under the law for ten years from the date of their creation.
The ministry made a contract on the “Development of Strategic and Complex Transformation Plans in the Healthcare Sector,” and no data will be released from it, as well as from Boston Consulting Group’s “Study and Executive Summary of a Possible Value-Based Transformation of Hungarian Healthcare.”
Bangó Borbély also asked about the contractual relationship between the Ministry of Interior and Boston Consulting Group and the number of cases in which the firm was entrusted by the ministry, but these questions were not answered by the Secretary of State.
The study was prepared in less than three months on the possible transformation of Hungarian healthcare. Prior to this, Boston Consulting was also asked to help lay out the foundations for healthcare reform in Slovakia. According to that concept, the Slovakian hospital system needs to be significantly redesigned due to the high number of unused beds, the long stay of patients in hospital, the high rate of preventable deaths, and the low utilization of the system in many places, so doctors cannot gain sufficient experience to ensure quality care. The consulting company therefore recommended, among other things, a reduction in the number of beds and the closure of smaller hospitals.
featured photo: Attila Balázs/MTI