National health care will receive HUF 18.2 billion in extra funding this year, Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog announced in Budapest, on 21 January 2014.
Outpatient specialty care will receive HUF 1.6 billion, HUF 770 million will be spent on the CT – MR examination of oncology patients, while HUF 790 million goes towards reducing waiting lists, the Minister explained. 9 HUF.7 billion shall be spent on raising the efficiency volume limit in hospital care; 1 billion for emergency care; 2.4 billion to finance the introduction of new treatments and procedures, and there will be funds left for spine stabilisation operations, so waiting lists of this kind will also become shorter.
The colon cancer screening program will get an extra 134 million HUF; the early development of children will receive an extra HUF 65 million and the budget for the treatment of disabled patients and those in need of special care will be HUF 300 million higher than last year.
Concerning waiting lists, Zoltán Balog said that the extra funding will make possible 1,300 hip and knee replacement operations – generally for patients who have been on the waiting list the longest.
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Regarding the waiting lists, the Minister emphasised that increasing funding is a high priority and it is essential to review these lists to ensure that they show the actual situation. Through containing real data, waiting lists will become about 10 percent shorter, he said.
Referring to resident scholarships, the Minister said that 601 out of 770 applicants have won a scholarship. The number of employees leaving the country has dropped, and thanks to the various scholarships we have managed to keep 1,600 doctors in Hungary. (In exchange for the 100 thousand HUF a month received during their residency, winning specialist candidates undertake to work in Hungary after taking the professional exam for a period of time equal to the scholarship period).
Last year, 14 percent less work permits were applied for than in 2012. The Minister of Human Resources concluded that it had been worth launching the scholarship programme, and the Ministry would do its best to ensure the programme continued next year.
This is the first time that more favourable migration figures have been achieved than in 2009, Minister of State for Health Miklós Szócska added, as "it is easier to keep residents at home than to coax them back from abroad”.
(Ministry of Human Resources)
