Shocking stories from the Hungarian health care: bed bugs and 9 hours waiting time

As we already reported, the Hungarian health care system struggles with many problems. Even though the governmental communication emphasises that it is getting better, the general experience of the patients is the opposite. We collected some staggering recent stories which appeared in the press shocking the people.

The Hungarian health care system is behind the Albanian

Clearly, it is already a cliché that the Hungarian health care system is not working well. For example, waiting lists are long, the debts of the hospitals are gigantic, and according to an official report leaked in 2016

two-third of the hospitals should be closed because of outdated medical technology, financial shortage and the lack of qualified doctors.

In fact, they left the country and are working in Western-European countries because in Hungary they receive ridiculously low salaries.

The most critical problem is the lack of money. According to the Hungarian Medical Chamber, the Hungarian health care system needs at least 6-700 billion HUF (EUR 2.25M). In fact, the Hungarian government communicates that it spends more money on health care. Thus, salaries are increasing. In contrast, a disappointed nurse sent her last paycheck to the Hír TV which showed an unbelievable 2 HUF (EUR 0.01) net payrise.

Thus, it is not surprising that the Sweden-centred Health Consumer Powerhouse ranked the Hungarian health care system

behind the Albanian and Macedonian.

For example, RTL Klub reported that bed bugs overran the psychiatry in Budapest. What’s more, an employee said that the problem is not unique, other institutions struggle with it, as well. After RTL KLUB released its hidden camera video recorded in the institution the psychiatry announced that they realised the problem and ordered the cleaning.

Shocking stories from everywhere

February started with the hair-raising story of Tibi Kasza. The famous Hungarian singer and showman’s mother

had to wait for 6-7 hours at the emergency department

sitting on a chair with suspicion of thrombosis. Henceforward, Kasza strongly criticised the Hungarian health care system in a Facebook-post. Since he has more than 1 million followers, the story spread out quickly.

Moreover, as we already reported, two weeks later a 77 years old cardiopathic lady was taken to the hospital by the ambulance. However, she had to

wait more than 9 hours in the emergency department before a doctor examined her.

Furthermore, the famous and awarded Hungarian writer, Zsuzsa Vathy, the wife of famous Hungarian fabulist, Ervin Lázár died last year because – according to her daughter – nobody examined her in time at the emergency department of the Military Hospital – State Health Centre. They waited more than 6 hours without any medical examination even though her mother was in a horrible state. Asking others, they learnt that

a patient with suspicion of infarct has been waiting for 6 hours.

A man added that he has been waiting for 10 hours. As a result, they went home and called the ambulance. A car arrived in short without a doctor. However, the nurse said that her mother has a very grave allergic reaction and sent them to the Szent János Hospital. However, Mrs Vathy could not be saved. In fact, the police investigation regarding the issue ended a couple of days ago. According to them, the medical staff of the Military Hospital is not responsible for the death.