Opposition Promises to Increase Number of Health-Care Employees and Set Up Stand-Alone Health Ministry

MTI-Hungary Today 2022.02.08.

Hungary’s opposition alliance has vowed to increase the number of health-care employees and set up a stand-alone health ministry if they win the April 3 general election.

Zoltán Komáromi, the Democratic Coalition’s (DK) health spokesman, pledged at an online press briefing to increase spending in proportion to GDP and narrow the spending gap with the European Union average. He also pledged to increase the number of health specialists and give pediatric nurses a pay rise.

Zoltán Szelényi of the Socialists (MSZP) said the united opposition would establish a stand-alone health ministry and reinstall the State Public Health and Medical Officer Service with adequate financing and strong powers.

Almost 17,000 Employees Left Hungarian Healthcare Sector in a Single Year

"This is obvious and unfortunately reflected in the mortality figures. It is not a question of workers not working as hard and not doing their best, but simply that they are physically unable to be there all the time and everywhere," the president of the Independent Healthcare Union said.Continue reading

Gábor Havasi of Momentum said 17,000 health-care workers “have been chased away from the profession just in a single year”, adding that waiting times for certain types of scheduled surgery came to months or even years. Doctors, assistants and nurses were, he added, “overburdened and exhausted”.

Fidesz: opposition wants paid healthcare and sending patients to India

Fidesz said in a statement that the opposition’s health policies revolved around “paid health care, [sending patients to] India, and holistic childbirth.”

The ruling party’s statement said it was clear from the period of government under Ferenc Gyurcsány how the left-wing envisaged health care, namely that a left-wing government would shrink public health care, introduce fees for visits to GP surgeries and hospitals, while health-care employees would be put in a precarious situation.

Data Regarding Wait Time for Surgeries Disappears from Official Website

No official explanation has been given as to the reason for the sudden reduction of data. By last December the number of people awaiting surgery hit a new record high exceeding 50,000.Continue reading

The prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, the statement added, had made clear that large swathes of the country’s health-care system would be privatized, and, further, it had been a mistake to abolish the fees for GP and hospital visits. Péter Márki-Zay, Fidesz said, had mooted the idea of shutting rural hospitals and sending Hungarians to India for eye surgery. Women, meanwhile, had been told that all they needed for childbirth would be a “holistic midwife” rather than a doctor, the statement added.

In the featured photo: Zoltán Komáromi. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI