Four thousand staff leave Hungarian public healthcare system
EnglishAs of March 1, 96.3 percent of healthcare workers, - more than 106 thousand professionals, chose to accept the new legal status of ‘health service relations’, and only 4,000 people decided to leave the public system, which is considerably fewer than preliminary data suggested, the National Hospital Directorate-General (Okfő) revealed.
They wrote in their statement that after receiving the final data they can confirm that barely 3.7 percent of healthcare workers decided to leave the public system, which is fewer than previously predicted.
At the same time, almost 700 new employees had joined by Wednesday.
They emphasized that uninterrupted patient care is ensured everywhere.
Okfő explained that the previous legal status was terminated by law on March 1, and the current number of exiting employees does not exceed the time-proportionate part of the annual fluctuation. They are currently assessing which medical fields are hit hardest by the resignations.
With almost 700 new employees joining the system, "owing to the professional commitment of Hungarian doctors, specialists and healthcare workers, there is no risk of endangering patient care in any part of the country",
only few institutions experienced a "temporary shortage of human resources"
According to information received from medical directors, the situation can be handled everywhere with in-house redeployment, the Okfő statement went on.
They added that negotiations are continuing with workers and professional organizations in the sector to clarify the issues that arise.
Director General Zoltán Jenei announced at a press conference on Tuesday that, based on Monday night's data, more than 95 percent of healthcare workers have already signed the contract about the new legal status, and it could go further up to 96 percent.
