The Hungarian healthcare is in crisis; 6,500 employees left

A weakened healthcare system is the only thing between us and the second wave of the coronavirus, as, since May last year, the number of healthcare workers in Hungary has decreased from 122.4 thousand to 115.9 thousand. This means that about 6.5 thousand workers have left the industry; a shocking change in the direst of situations.

Adrianna Soós, the chairperson of the Independent Health Trade Union in Hungary (Független Egészségügyi Szakszervezet), said to Népszava: “These 6.5 thousand employees are definitely missing from the healthcare system, and they mostly left in recent months. Even in the past, there were very few specialists, and the intensive care was under a particularly high workload.” The chairperson of the trade union does not know what exactly might have caused the current unprecedented dwindle in the number of workers in the healthcare system. She highlighted that

this could be a serious issue as the second wave of the epidemic is just around the corner.

There have been several events in recent months that may have led to this decrease in numbers. The healthcare system has been operating with reduced capacity since the epidemic. Hospitals let fewer patients occupy beds, so a smaller staff is enough. According to the latest data of the Central Statistical Office in Hungary, only 53.3% of active beds are currently in service. Last year, two-thirds of the beds (68.4%) housed patients. Only a few chronic patients were able to return.

Last year, 85% of beds for chronic patients were occupied, while it is only 52.5% now.

Many healthcare workers have suffered a 20-30% drop in their income due to the epidemic, as the additional means of earning money have temporarily disappeared during the emergency. Normally, half or two-thirds of healthcare workers and almost all doctors have second or third jobs.

Instead of the normal 40 hours a week, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers work 60 hours a week – or even more, if we add on-call services – to make a living.

When the emergency was declared, these extra work possibilities in Hungary and even abroad were unavailable for an unpredictable period of time. In some places, the heads of institutions did not allow their employees to have a second job in order to have enough people standby if the healthcare system became overloaded. Others banned second jobs to prevent workers from bringing the virus into the institution from elsewhere.