Hospital divisions closed due to holidays

In Hungary, the small number of healthcare workers is apparently a serious problem, now the joint infectology department of St István Hospital and St László Hospital was closed due to this issue, Magyar Nemzet reports.

The patients are not informed about this in any written form, and the workers did not wish to give further information on the situation either.

János Szlavik infectologyst told Magyar Nemzet that forty beds were closed off now because workers go on Christmas holiday. He does not believe this to be a new practice, and it works like this in other hospitals too. Meaning it is probably not the only institute where part of the beds is unreachable.

In this time of the year more workers take days off and it is harder to substitute them.

The lack of specialists is a more and more severe problem in most healthcare centres. In the summer of 2017, 7028 jobs were unfulfilled.

According to János Szlavik, the closing off of the beds will not cause a problem, in this time of the year there are usually no epidemics, the flu is typical in January and February. Still, they can treat all their patients; a similar situation has already occurred in the hospital.

But this is not a real solution to the problem in general. Zoltán Ónodi-Szűcs State Secretary for Health declared that the lack of specialists is the main cause of the human resource crisis. The number of doctors per head is the same as the European average. To mitigate the crisis, the government will launch a scholarship programme.

According to the State Healthcare Provider, full-time students of medicine will receive a monthly scholarship of forty thousand forints. The program will be implemented with over 4 billion HUF European Union funding.

3200 medical students are expected to receive this scholarship, but the frame might be expanded. The conditions include that these young people work in the national public health service for as many years as they received the money.

Hospital departments were closed not only during the Christmas holidays but in the summer, too.

In the summer, Nyírő Gyula Hospital had to close down half of its internal medicine department because there were not enough doctors. Honvéd Hospital helped out the institute, but many people quit because they had to work too much.

According to the data of the State Health Care Center, in the first half of 2017, 324 physicians and 327 health professionals requested the official certificate of foreign employment. Besides, among the specialists, not only those under thirty-five will decide to continue abroad. Last year, for example, 311 of the 35-49-year-olds required the required document. The hundreds of people who have been lost are causing serious problems in the domestic supply.

Source: mno.hu