Despite the times of war and sanctions, the government is committed to improving the performance of the Hungarian health sector year after year, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior (BM) said at the Semmelweis Day awards ceremony in Budapest on Monday.
Bence Rétvári announced at an event held at the Ministry of the Interior that preserving people’s health is a task that should not be forgotten even in times of war, which is why 425 billion forints more resources will be available to the health sector next year than last year.
In the past decade, the amount spent on healthcare increased from HUF 1,100 billion to HUF 3,200 billion, which is more than a two and a half times increase, noted the state secretary.
Bence Rétvári said that the number of doctors has increased noticeably in the past decade, 1,000-1,500 are graduating from medical universities every year, which means an increase of one and a half times.
In 2010, almost 34,000 doctors in Hungary had operating licenses, and currently more than 40,000, parallel to this, the number of people applying for a license to work abroad has drastically decreased to one third, added the state secretary.
Among the measures of the past period, Bence Rétvári singled out the abolition of the gratuity, which, as he said, adversely affected the functioning of the Hungarian healthcare system for about 70 years.
However, according to a representative survey at the end of last year, only one percent of Hungarians mentioned the gratuity as a problem, he reported.
He also mentioned the new on-call system, which he says is fairer and safer than before.
Praising Ignác Semmelweis, he said that in many countries of the world they are aware of who he was, and they would be proud of him if they too had such an excellent doctor.
But even after Semmelweis, every generation had those excellent doctors and healers who not only protected people’s health and saved their lives, but also increased people’s trust in healthcare.
There are many people who still like this, even in international comparison, Hungarian medicine is of such a standard that we can be proud of, and there are not many other professions that people value as much as medicine and nursing, said Bence Rétvári.
On the occasion of Semmelweis Day, five people received the Semmelweis Ignác Award, fifteen received the László Batthyány-Strattmann Award, and 33 ministerial certificates of appreciation were awarded.
The awards were presented by Bence Rétvári and Péter Takács, the state secretary of the Ministry of Health.
On the initiative of the State Secretariat for Health, since 2011 July 1, the birthday of Ignác Semmelweis, has been a public holiday for health and health care workers.
MTI
