Hungary to allocate nearly 500 billion forint for healthcare wage restructuring

Hungarian Health Minister Zsolt Hegedűs announced that the government intends to allocate nearly 500 billion forint from an additional sectoral funding pool toward wage restructuring for healthcare professionals. The primary goal of this expenditure is to establish a new salary scale designed to support career paths, including assistance for early-career workers, retention of the mid-career workforce, and recognition of experienced senior staff.

Hegedűs stated that preparations for the wage adjustment are complete and inter-ministerial negotiations with the Ministry of Finance have accelerated. The Minister emphasized a commitment to involving healthcare professionals in the process, noting that their suggestions will be integrated into ministerial work and they will have a seat at the negotiating table during the fine-tuning of the new salary scale.

Following a congress of the Hungarian Chamber of Healthcare Professionals, the Minister highlighted that discussions also covered training, emergency care, ambulance services, prevention, and rehabilitation. While the long-term strategy aims to create a patient-centered healthcare system, specific details regarding the exact implementation date and the precise amount of individual salary increases have not yet been disclosed.