Hungarian patients need to wait years for surgery

After having lifted most of the restrictions in the country, all Hungarian hospitals and doctors’ offices are allowed to treat patients who are not infected with the coronavirus but have some other health problems. All healthcare institutions are obligated to maintain strict precautions and take care of workers and patients with the necessary protection methods (face masks, sanitisers, etc).

Pénzcentrum reported that once the restrictions are lifted, the number of patients who are waiting for some kind of surgery at hospitals will increase again, which means that the average waiting time would also be longer. This is because, during the days when the restrictions were in place, hospitals could only treat patients with coronavirus, and all kinds of surgeries were deferred to a later appointment. This means that the delays must be completed first and after that come the new appointments. 

• Surgery assistant shortage in Hungarian hospital causes cancelled operations

There were, of course, exceptional cases which could not wait, but all other non-urgent surgeries were delayed. 

Surgeries involving prosthesis are the only procedures which make patients wait almost a year. The average waiting period is 389 days; in the southern regions of Hungary, it is 271, but in the western parts, it can increase to 571. In Győr, it is 594, and in Zala County, it is 662 days. The most terrible numbers, though, were reported in relation to hip and knee prosthesis surgeries;

1,833 and 1,585 days on average, almost five years. 

Surgical procedures with eyes have a shorter waiting time. In five hospitals in Hungary, it is only ten days, but there are others where this number is twenty-eight because many patients are waiting for this kind of surgery. According to statistics, 2,214 patients are currently waiting for eye surgery. Last year, different numbers were reported; to read about the situation in 2019, click on the article below. 

Read alsoHow much time do patients wait for surgery in Hungary?

North-Hungarian regions have the most patients waiting for surgeries, with years of waiting, while at the same time, the northern parts of the Great Hungarian Plain and South Hungary have the least. 

Source: www.penzcentrum.hu