Serious errors in the Hungarian healthcare system

The directorate of Honvédkórház (“Homeland Defence” Hospital) has a serious responsibility in the death of one of their patients, says ambulance doctor Zsombor Kunetz. There are many errors in the management systems of all the hospitals in Hungary – the sector is at the brink of collapse. 

If the investigation ascertains the responsibility of the hospital’s associates, the directorate’s mistakes will also be revealed, says ambulance doctor and health care expert Zsombor Kunetz in his interview with Klubrádió (radio channel). He has said for a long time that the operation of Honvédkórház is not lawful. It has a separate place for surgery services, without any functional serving department. There is no radiologist on duty during the night who could do ultrasonography. Not only should the doctors on duty be judged, but also the main director of the hospital (who is a manager of military technology) because he is responsible for the management. There are not only medical mistakes in this issue but serious errors in the system as well.

What exactly happened?

The patient went to the emergency department of the hospital with a surgical referral. Surgery is always operating but in two different places. The other surgery is where the old MÁV Hospital used to be, but there was no radiologist to do ultrasonography. This is why the patient was taken back to the place where he had arrived first. In practice, the patient gets examined and is taken back “somehow” to the other surgery, so that the results can be evaluated and a decision can be made about whether further examinations are needed or not. According to Zsombor Kunetz, nothing has changed, and today, everything would happen the same way. 

Regarding the question about which hospital we should choose if we have a problem, he only replied that it did not matter at all – the same circumstances and problems are in every hospital of the country, and the system is about to collapse. Last time Hónvédkórház closed its gates for some hours again, the system was temporarily shut down because of IT development.