Hundreds of GP practices permanently unfilled in Hungary

Budapest, May 29 (MTI) – According to data published by the National Health Insurance Fund (OEP), 352 general practitioner’s and 284 dentist’s practices are “permanently unfilled” in Hungary, daily Világgazdaság said on Monday.

The number of GPs fell by 6.6 percent, from 5159 to 4817, between 2000 and 2015. In the same period, cities and towns saw an average 9.6 percent growth in the number of doctors, while around 25 percent fewer work in villages and rural areas than in 2000, the paper wrote. The areas worst hit by the shortage are Tolna and Somogy counties in the southwest, Békés in the southeast and Nógrád and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén in the north of the country.

Meanwhile, patient numbers rose by a quarter between 2000 and 2015, the paper said.

Of the active GPs, 44 percent are over 60 years of age and 11 percent are in their seventies.

Source: MTI