Hungary – Critical labour shortage in the healthcare system

In 2018, 41,300 healthcare employees were registered in Hungary; meanwhile there were 1,700 available job vacancies in the country. According to the data of the Hungarian Statistical Office (KSH), the highest number of vacancies occurred in inpatient care (971), followed by outpatient treatment (459) – reported by the Hungarian news portal Portfolio.

43% of medical job vacancies were experienced in Budapest; the capital was followed by Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Komárom-Esztergom and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties.

Nationwide, 101,000 health care workers were employed in 2018, while the ratio of the related job vacancies was 3.5%. In case of family doctors, 6,100 GPs were employed in 2018. However, approximately 1,400 settlements (with a population of fewer than 1,000 residents) had no general practitioner.

According to the Hungarian news portal Index – recently there is more and more news about a labour shortage in the healthcare system. Previously, the critical shortage was experienced in the case of anesthesiologists; even though several short trainings have been initiated, by which the profession can be practised after 1.5 years. In April, infectious department of the hospital in Szolnok closed due to lack of specialists; while in February, anesthesia process was carried out by cardiologists in the hospital of Miskolc. In March, vascular surgeries were cancelled in Péterfy Hospital.

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According to Népszava, although 250,000 health care workers are registered, only 107,000 work actively in this field. The majority of young people are not involved in the healthcare system, they leave this field or do not even start it after graduation.

What makes the situation even worse is that the majority of them go to work abroad.

In the last eight years, a total of 4,780 professionals requested a certificate for foreign employment, mostly between the age of 30-49. Interestingly, this age group also had the highest proportion of those who have not renewed their operating licenses. Probably, they do not practice their profession actively, or have chosen different work abroad for which medical degree is not required. According to the data of the State Health Care Center (ÁEEK), the proportion of labour shortage in case of nurses is 10%, midwives 25%, paramedics 13%.

Source: portfolio.hu; index.hu; nepszava.hu