Hungarians facing long hospital waiting lists, dissatisfaction rising [Advocacy Lab Content]

4 months ago 19

Long waiting lists for scheduled operations at Hungarian hospitals are at the centre of a fierce political debate. Seven thousand patients were added to the lists in just one year, delays can take up to six years.

While the Hungarian government claims a significant reduction in waiting times, Mihály Pálosi, head of the Department of the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK), estimates that as many as 47,000 patients are awaiting a surgical procedure.

The average waiting time for a knee prosthesis is estimated at a year and a half and for cataracts at a few months

The longest waiting times for knee replacements (15,100 thousand patients) are followed by cataract surgery (13,700 patients) and hip prosthesis (8,700 patients), according to the most recent data from the NEAK.

Hot political debate

Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, claimed the lists had been reduced. During a press conference in May, he argued that the average waiting times had decreased and may decrease even further soon, thanks to governmental interventions.

“Capacities would be freed for this,” he stated, adding that during the worst period, 43,000 people waited more than 60 days for surgery, while today it is approximately 26,000.

In his speech, Péter Magyar, heading the newly formed TISZA party, stressed that Hungary’s healthcare system is in a bad state.

He listed the healthcare system anomalies: spending on health is comparatively low, there is a shortage of 1,000 nurses, 1.5 million people do not have general practitioners nearby, and a high number of doctors are aged, alongside extreme six-year waiting lists.

Healthcare system’s extremes and deformities

In an effort to reduce waiting lists, HUF 5.2 billion (Euro 1,3 million) were allocated in the 2024 budget.

In one year, the number of patients waiting for a scheduled operation has increased by 7,000; currently, 47,000 patients are waiting for various surgical interventions, according to a figures revealed by Mihály Pálosi, head of the Department of Project Management and Data Services at NEAK at the conference of the Hungarian Hospital Association.

According to Pálosi, waiting lists are among the top three most important evaluation criteria for the healthcare sector. The average waiting time for a knee prosthesis is a year and a half, and for cataracts, it is a few months.

While 30-45 percent of hospital beds are empty in Hungarian hospitals, the equivalent of the population of a smaller town is on waiting lists.

Serious disruption in entire regions

At the end of May, emergency thoracic surgery care at the hospital in Győr was stopped for four days; the patients had to be transported to Szombathely or Budapest due to a temporary lack of human resources.

Care is currently unavailable at the Szolnok Hospital’s departments of urology, neurology, and stroke emergency.

The National Health Insurance Fund plans to reduce the waiting list by using a central database to detect regional differences, among other things.

Different assessments of the situation come from the fact that health policy calculates with national averages, while the waiting times are scattered regionally, which is why some patients perceive things quite differently than the sector managers.

According to the Hungarian Hospital Association, the reasons for the increase in waiting lists include organisational inadequacy, capacity scarcity, and a lack of human resources. Experts suggest that in order for the waiting list reduction program to be effective, it would first be necessary to reform the organisation of care and introduce performance financing.

Additionally, many patients simply do not receive adequate information about the length of the wait and its possible consequences.

Consequently, a patient’s condition may deteriorate, threatening their survival, while their mental state can be seriously affected, elongating the recovery time.

As a result, more and more patients turn to private healthcare to avoid long waiting lists or travelling hundreds of kilometres to get treatment faster.

[By Zsolt Kopári, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]