Labour shortage: you can’t give birth in one of Budapest’s biggest hospitals!

This weekend you will not be able to give birth at Budapest’s biggest hospital, the Szent Imre Hospital, due to labour shortage, Hungarian media writes. The institution suggests mothers-to-be visit other hospitals in Budapest, provided their labour starts.

Labour shortage hitting hard the Hungarian healthcare sector

From 16 September to 18 September, there will be no admissions to the department of obstetrics and gynaecology of the Szent Imre Hospital in Budapest. Mothers-to-be may go to the Szent János Hospital, the Clinical Centre of the Semmelweis University or the South-Pest Hospital Centre, blikk.hu reported.

Based on the information of HVG, a severe labour shortage is behind the decision of the Szent Imre Hospital. A former MP, Andrea Varga-Damm wrote on Facebook that the situation is similar in the hospitals of Veszprém and Szombathely, West Hungary.

Read also: Will restrictions return in Hungary again from autumn?

One-jab Pfizer vaccine to be administered to health-care workers first

A new, one-jab coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, of which Hungary has so far received 109,000 doses, will be first used as a booster for vaccinated health-care workers, the official website koronavirus.gov.hu said on Thursday. The vaccine will be available for the Hungarian public from next week, the website said.

Furthermore, government offices are also polling demand in elderly care homes, it said. Hungary has ordered 9.5 million doses of the vaccine in a European Union purchase programme launched in wake of the spread of the Omicron variant. It is expected to receive 3 million doses this year and 6.5 million in 2023. Of the latter, 1.5 million doses will be optimised for children, the website said.