Incredible! 40% of Hungarian medical students want to work abroad

Findings of a recent survey revealed that the government failed to stop the emigration of Hungarian doctors, reports Népszava.hu. The survey was carried out by the Institute of Behavioural Sciences of Semmelweis University.

The survey

Results suggest that the lack of Hungarian doctors will be an important problem in Hungary for many years to come. Zsuzsa Győrffy and Zsuzsanna Szél from the Institute of Behavioural Sciences conducted a survey in which they investigated how many Hungarian medical students plan to work abroad. 5^th- and 6^th-year university students from four different Hungarian medical schools took part in the online survey.

Most important results

40% of respondents said that they plan to work abroad, and every 25^th respondent is sure that he/she will not work as a doctor in the future.

The question emerges: why? Two-thirds of the respondents who plan to seek employment abroad claimed that

besides the working and living conditions, wages were the main reasons for making their decision to leave Hungary.

Most of the respondents plan to work abroad for a minimum of 2-5 years. The majority of these medical students said that they would consider moving back to Hungary only if there would be fundamental changes in Hungarian healthcare.

1/10 of the respondents are sure that they will never come back to work in Hungary.

Even though 57.8% of respondents claimed that they do not plan to work abroad, the numbers are still not looking good. The scholarship provided by the Hungarian government seems to have little to no effect on the emigration of doctors.

Today, 3000 doctors are missing from the Hungarian healthcare system.

Some are not satisfied with the different grants provided by the government. Students receiving the Markusovszky Scholarship, for example, have to work in the national healthcare system for a period twice as long as their time spent in medical school, and they have to do it within 20 years, otherwise, they have to pay the money back to the government. According to Rita Lénárd, member of the 1001 orvos hálapénz nélkül group (1001 doctors without gratitude), doctors should receive payment for their work and not scholarships and grants.

The bigger picture

It is important to mention that it is not only the young who are dissatisfied. Many older, more experienced specialists leave the country as well. A resident said to Népszava.hu that many of his colleagues left Hungary because:

“They just wanted to be treated as humans in their workplace.”

Source: www.nepszava.hu