Hungary is launching a new programme aimed at cutting hospital waiting times by expanding surgery into afternoons and weekends, while offering extra financial incentives to medical teams. The move comes as patients in some hospitals still face waits of several months for planned procedures.
Hospital waiting lists are one of the most visible pressure points in Hungary’s healthcare system.
According to the National Health Insurance Fund’s current waiting-list database, average waiting times for cataract surgery exceed 200 days at several hospitals. At the Markhot Ferenc Hospital in Heves County, the average waiting time over the previous six months stood at 310 days, while patients at the Nagykanizsa hospital waited an average of 246 days. In Zala County, the figure was 188 days.
Against this backdrop, Health Minister Zsolt Hegedűs announced on Sunday that the government is launching a new waiting-list reduction programme previously promised by Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
“There is a strong commitment from the medical profession. Our task now is to bring together the additional funding, professional expertise, the right incentives and the available capacity in a way that allows patients to feel the benefits as soon as possible,” Hegedűs Zsolt wrote.
In his announcement, the minister said the aim is not simply to perform more operations, but to make better use of existing surgical capacity and give healthcare workers a direct financial incentive to take on additional work.
More surgeries after normal hours
The programme will primarily expand operations into the afternoon hours after regular shifts, while hospitals with sufficient staffing and professional capacity will also be able to perform additional surgery at weekends. A new financing incentive will be introduced to support this extra workload.
Hegedűs said a significant share of the additional funding would go directly to the teams that make the extra procedures possible, including doctors, nurses and other hospital staff.
Part of the new funding would be linked to quality indicators, patient-reported outcomes and patient satisfaction. The model is intended to move closer to what Hegedűs described as a “best practice tariff” approach, in which financing rewards both efficiency and measurable clinical outcomes.
Hospitals to be assessed individually
Each hospital will receive its own “problem map” identifying the main bottlenecks limiting surgical capacity. These may include staff shortages, inefficient operating-room management, competition from private healthcare providers and limited personal incentives for additional work.
The ministry also plans to monitor operating-room utilisation, actual surgical time, the time needed to change patients between procedures and the efficiency of the entire process.
Hegedűs argued that operating theatres are among the most expensive parts of hospital infrastructure and that unused capacity represents a significant loss.
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Semmelweis and Pécs expanding capacity
Semmelweis University and the University of Pécs are already working on expanding surgical capacity under the programme.
Foreign specialists experienced in ERAS, or Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols, are also expected to participate. These protocols are designed to shorten hospital stays where medically appropriate, speed up patient recovery and allow hospitals to admit the next patients sooner.
The programme will also include a review and “clean-up” of waiting lists, with the aim of identifying which patients are still genuinely waiting for surgery and removing outdated or inactive cases.
BMI rule also set to change
Another important change concerns orthopaedic surgery. A protocol introduced in April 2025 automatically placed temporary restrictions on certain patients with a BMI above 35. Hegedűs said this rule is now being reviewed.
Instead of an automatic threshold, future decisions would be based on individual patient risk, professional assessment and the judgment of the treating team.
Patients may also receive more comparable information about hospital performance, quality and outcomes, allowing them to make more informed choices about where to seek treatment.
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