Why do Hungarians living abroad come back to Hungary for a doctor’s visit?

According to Vilaggazdasag.hu, more and more Hungarians, who are currently working abroad, make an appointment at private clinics when they come back for the holidays. The visits get more frequent during Christmas and Easter.

Fanni Straub, founder and manager of FoglaljOrvost.hu (an online websites which mediates between doctors and patients) told Vilaggazdasag that out of the 4.000 check-ins in December almost 50% were registering from outside of Hungary. As the website doesn’t have an English version, and it’s unlikely for foreigners to know their way about the Hungarian website, it seems evident that Hungarians, currently living abroad, are coming home for regular check-ups and examinations.

Most of the bookings in December came from Germany, but England and Ireland were not far behind. Although the data are not representative, they still show a trend which the website already realised in 2014: before a longer holiday comes (usually Christmas and Easter), bookings from abroad get more frequent. Also, except for that period most of the check-ins are coming from Hungary.

Recent statistics show that approximately 600.000 Hungarians are working abroad and thousands of them still come back to Hungary for a doctor’s visit. According to Fanni Straub, their number will rise as more and more doctors are available online. Foglalj.Orvost.hu was launched in 2011, and more than 25.000 bookings were made in 2015, most of them late at night, after office hours.

There could be many reasons behind this trend. Experts say that Hungarians still trust their doctors. Also, most of the workers are not members of the given countries’ national health care system and do not have a social security number, because they either stay in the Hungarian system, or they are members of neither. Recent statistics show that approximately 300.000 Hungarians are currently living in Great Britain, but according to official statistics, only 20.000-25.000 Hungarians apply for a social security number every year. Those without one are not entitled to use the country’s national health care system, and only have a few available options in need of a doctor, including emergency situations.

Besides, fees are much higher in other countries; for instance a CT scanning costs £600 in Great Britain (app. 250.000 HUF), a knee replacement surgery is £11.500 (app. 5 million HUF), a hip replacement surgery is £8.200-12.000 (app. 3.5-5.2 million HUF), reported MediHelp International, which intends to increase the number of its patients by recruiting Hungarians abroad.

Going to a private practitioner is getting more common in Hungary as well, mostly among 30-35 year old people with stable finances, Fanni Straub said. Those who have the necessary means would rather pay 10.000-15.000 HUF for an occasion instead of waiting for weeks in national hospitals.

Apart from those who are able to pay the high fees more and more people decide to get appointments at a private GP that is normally way out of their league, just because they are so dissatisfied with the national system. According to GKI Economy Research Co.‘s 2014 representative survey, only ¼ of the residents between the ages of 18 and 60 are satisfied with the system, and half of them would be ready to pay for a private appointment. 27% said that they would go private because it represents a higher quality service than the national health care system does, 24% is motivated by the wide range of available times (e.g. weekends), but 56% of the participants said that they already pay for the national health care, therefore they would not go private, and 35% of them simply doesn’t have enough money to choose a private practitioner.

Copy editor: bm

Source: vg.hu