Corruption, poverty, healthcare – What Hungarians worry about the most

The topics of corruption, propaganda, severe labour shortage in the fields of healthcare and education have been widely reported, as well as how poor some Hungarian regions are. But among these negative factors, which are the most intense and cause the most amount of anxiety for Hungarian residents?

Kafkadesk reported that in Hungary, the most severe issue identified by respondents was healthcare (69% of respondents naming it among the top three worrisome topics, the single highest rate in the world), followed by financial and political corruption (53%, fourth-highest worldwide). Also, Hungarian residents are mildly concerned about the state of education (28%), unemployment and jobs (17%), climate change (13%), as well as crime and violence (11%).

Other topics include Hungary’s moral decline (10%), threats to the environment (7%), taxes (7%), rise of extremism (7%), inflation (6%), immigration control (5%), terrorism (4%), maintaining social programmes (4%), childhood obesity (2%), and access to credit (2%).

It is no wonder that the top three most worrying topics are healthcare, financial and political corruption, and education.

Labour shortage is severe in Hungarian hospitals, and the summer holiday worsens the situation even more. For example, in the Saint Margaret Hospital (Budapest), there were no gastroenterologists, so the director ordered standby duty in order to provide service for patients having acute haematemesis or internal haemorrhaging. If we wanted to rate the hospitals according to which one is the worst, we would have problems choosing categories to rate them accordingly. There were many scandals and horrifying stories from Hungarian hospitals.

GRECO’s latest survey analysed the corrupt situation in Hungary. It reveals that according to the Council of Europe, Hungary only implemented five out of their eighteen suggestions. The two words that come up the most in the report are “disappointing” and “worrying.”

And last but not least, not only the lack of Hungarian teachers is a problem in the country, but these people are also among the least well-paid professionals in the European Union.