The most incredible scandals of the Hungarian healthcare in 2018

If we wanted to rate the hospitals according to which one is the worst, we would have problems choosing categories to rate them accordingly. Should it be based on how many patients die during the 6-12 hours of waiting time before a single doctor sees the patient? Should we rate them by how many people need to spend their time waiting on polyfoams which patients brought for themselves? Maybe based on the number of diseases patients can get while they try to get rid of their original problems, or by how many paramedics use equipment they brought from home which later they need to sterilise at home?

Probably the biggest question we could ask about the year 2018 in retrospect is: „Was it worse to be a patient or a hospital worker?”

Previously we wrote about the debts of the Hungarian hospitals. If you are interested, you can read that article HERE.

This was before the April elections, but unfortunately, the situation of the healthcare has not improved much if any. Hvg.hu gathered all of the blunders of the healthcare system in Hungary in 2018. Here comes the list, but be prepared, it will be shocking.

• A middle-aged woman died in the Medical Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces because they transported her from one building to the other three times over and they operated the woman a day later, which surgery could have saved the life of the patient.
• In this year, the famous Premature Birth department of the Medical Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces temporarily closed down due to the unexpectedly high number of employees leaving.
• The departments at the Hospital of Southern Pest swap their equipment between each other to be able to mitigate the lack of proper equipment because the hospital has a debt over 3 Million € and they try to save money on bedsheets, diapers, and needles.
• In the Hospital of Szombathely, they try to collect the leaking water using rubbish bins in the emergency department
• In the Buda Hospital of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, the pest problem is so unbelievable, that cockroaches are gathering in such high numbers that it caused one of the patients to get a shock and had to be sedated. Others were awake at night with the lamps on, because the pests came out in the dark. The hospital since said that the exterminator was successful.
• Not much after László Székely, one of the best heart surgeons of Hungary has been fired, one of his former patients who was awaiting surgery passed away.
• The emergency department of the Medical Centre of the Hungarian Defence Forces was on the brink of closing, due to the lack of personnel and proper equipment. Due to the lack of emergency specialists, ophthalmologists and dermatologists treated the patients with cases of emergency.
• Due to a labour shortage, the intensive care department of the Hospital of Kecskemét closed down for a whole month. The patients were transported to Cegléd, Kiskunhalas, and Dunaújváros, which were 15-30 kilometres away.
• At the start of September, all of the nurses quit their job in the intensive care department of the Imre Magyar Hospital at Ajka. The hospital tried to mitigate the problem by hiring other nurses and calling back pensioners. Due to the work overload and low salaries, the anesthesiologists also quit their jobs later.