Hungary is launching several cancer screening programmes this year and continues to improve cancer-related medical services across the country, Minister of State for Healthcare Miklós Szócska said at a press conference on Tuesday, World Cancer Day.
Hungary is launching several cancer screening programmes this year and continues to improve cancer-related medical services across the country, Minister of State for Healthcare Miklós Szócska said at a press conference on Tuesday, World Cancer Day.
Mr. Szócska said a breast screening programme will be launched on April 10, within the framework of which 600,000 women will be checked every year. He also said that there will be mobile screening stations going to regions where healthcare coverage is below optimal, and the regular screening stations will have their opening hours extended. He said a public tender has already been announced for supplying teenage girls with state-financed HPV inoculations. In addition, the Ministry for Human Resources will launch a cancer awareness campaign stressing the importance of early detection.
Minster of State Szócska also said that while in 2010 Hungarian hospitals had 71 oncology and radiology units with a total of 1,880 beds, those numbers rose to 75 and 1,950, respectively, by 2013, adding that 30 hospitals have inpatient oncology wards that treat 209,000 patients a year. He said the healthcare system spends an annual 35.5 billion forints (EUR 114.3 million) a year on hospital treatments for cancer and 1.1 billion forints (EUR 3.5 million) on some 800,000 outpatients.
Speaking about the future, Mr. Szócska said plans include spending 20 billion forints (EUR 64.4 million) on improving oncology wards, in addition to which the Government will supplement the healthcare budget for oncology with 300 million forints (EUR 1 million) and will spend an additional 800 million forints (EUR 2.6 million) on cancer diagnostics this year.
(Ministry of Human Resources)
