Government official: Doctors, nurses emigrating less

The number of doctors leaving Hungary to work abroad has fallen over the past eight years, a government official said on Friday.

In 2017, the lowest number of doctors applied to go abroad, and since 2010 the number of doctors planning to work abroad has fallen by 60 percent, Ministry of Human Resources parliamentary state secretary Bence Rétvári said.

The number of nurses leaving the country has gone down by 30 percent compared with 2015, he added.

Since 2010, various government measures have improved the situation of doctors and nurses, he said, adding that results were already visible. Whereas in 2010, 845 Hungarian doctors applied for the first time for an official foreign employment certificate, last year this number was only 334.

In recent years, 1,498 doctors who have applied for a foreign work permit are still currently working in the Hungarian health-care system after having moved abroad and returned to Hungary. Others are shuffling between Hungary and abroad, he said.

Source: MTI