Health Systems in Transition - Hungary - World Health Organization ...

Health systems in transition Hungary 99
be considered official salary supplements. They do, however, provide some
material incentive for doctors to stay in the profession, especially for certain
specialties (e.g. gynaecology, surgery).
The majority of personnel, including nurses and midwives, continue to
be salaried public employees. In 2010, health care workers’ salaries ranked
strikingly low among those of full-time employees of the 20 main sectors of
Hungarian economy (see Table 3.9). This is closely linked with the human
resource crisis in the health system, which endangers the sustainability of
current performance even for the near future: according to the NISHR, the
number of health care workers dropped in public institutions (see more in 4.2.1).
Table 3.9
Average monthly gross wages of employees in health care and in the national economy,
HUF
2006 2008 2010
Health care 165 000 185 000 176 000
– as % of average in national economy 96.2% 93.3% 87.0%
Industry 163 000 188 000 207 000
– as % of average in national economy 95.3% 94.7% 102.2%
Financial services 402 000 432 000 433 000
– as % of average in national economy 234.4% 217.2% 214.0%
Public administration and defence 223 000 268 000 243 000
– as % of average in national economy 130.2% 134.7% 12.2%
National economy in average 171 000 199 000 203 000
– as % of average in national economy 100.0% 100.,0% 100.0%
Source: HCSO, 2011.
Notes: €1 = 265.43 HUF (August 2011), Central Bank of Hungary.
Despite repeated mentions in policy papers by the Ministry of National
Resources since the beginning of 2000s, that the low wages of the health workers
should be a top priority of health policy agendas, no effective policy has been
formulated on this matter and no modification of the strict cost-containment
strategy towards the health sector has taken place. The single exception was the
– on average – 50% raise in public sector salaries in the fall of 2002, just before
the local government elections. This significant increase brought the official
salaries in the health sector closer to the industry average in following years
but health care wages have been levelling off again since 2005 (HCSO, 2010c).
Obviously, there are differences in wages among health professionals.
Medical doctors earn far higher wages than nurses or other health workers, but
still have far lower monthly gross earnings than the financial sector average,