Hungary’s national health programme set to be drafted this year

Hungary’s national health programme is set to be drafted and submitted to the government this year, the human resources minister said in an interview published in Friday’s issue of Magyar Idők.

The programme will focus on preventing and treating five groups of diseases, namely oncological, cardiovascular, locomotor, paediatric and mental disorders,

Miklós Kásler said.

The national health programme will be modelled on the anti-cancer programme devised by the National Oncology Institute under Kásler’s direction back in 1993.

The anti-cancer programme, on which the related WHO guidelines were partly based, prescribed regular screening, diagnostics, therapy options, medical training, R+D, personnel requirements, the role of social organisations, rehabilitation and funding.

Popularisation of healthy living will be part and parcel of the national health programme, he said.

The minister said the scheme would bear visible fruit in 15 to 20 years, so decision makers should think in the long term rather than in four-year political cycles.

As we wrote yesterday, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office revealed some shocking numbers: 54% of the Hungarian nation is obese or overweight. As it turns out, Hungary has the highest obesity rate in Europe, and only the people of the United States, Mexico and New-Zealand are heavier than Hungarians, read more HERE.

As we wrote last week, according to some analysts, without parasolvency – a kind of mandatory gratuity or tip given to the doctors and nurses by the patients – the whole healthcare system would have collapsed a long time ago. In the region, only the Romanians and the Ukrainians pump more money into the system this way, read more HERE.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI