Leftist DK: Shortage of GPs ‘alarming’

Opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) lawmaker Zoltán Komáromi said there was an “alarming” shortage of GPs in Hungary, on Tuesday.

Recent figures by the national hospital directorate showed that there were 1,093 unoccupied medical positions in the country, of which 687 were GPs.

A significant part of practicing doctors are above retirement age and the number of unoccupied GP practices has grown by 60 percent in the past three years, and the number of people left without a GP practice by 80 percent, he said.

Komáromi said the policies of the Orbán regime over the past 12 years resulted in a “huge health-care disaster”.

He criticised the fact that the area was not overseen by a dedicated ministry. He said interior minister Sándor Pintér would be unable to resolve the problem of missing doctors and entire regions were left without regular health service.

Fully 909,720 Hungarians live in areas without a GP and 725,430 people get no local dental care, he added.