Zoltan Onodi-Szucs new state secretary for health

Budapest, October 13 (MTI) – Zoltan Onodi-Szucs will be the new state secretary for health, the head of the ministry of human resources that controls the health portfolio told a news conference on Tuesday.

Onodi-Szucs, until now the head of the state health services center (AEEK), said that his primary aim is to serve the interests of the public rather than the sector’s institutions.

“We want people to feel that their problems are addressed, as this has gone by the wayside in the past,” Onodi-Szucs said.

Hungarian health-care institutions are, nevertheless, up to European standards, he added.

Tasks will include improving basic health-care services and boosting public satisfaction, he said. Incentives for health-care workers will be changed, too, he said, adding that career-ladder pay scales were unlikely to be implemented and collective contracts would apply instead.

On the subject of hospital financing, Onodi-Szucs said the current situation was unclear since funds are distributed based on institutional interests. In future, public needs must be gauged before resources are allocated. If clear goals are set, matching funds should not be a problem, he added.

Regarding a planned “super hospital” for Budapest, he said it was likely to be built on the Buda side of the city. Thirteen sites are currently being considered, he said, adding that planning should be completed by the end of 2016.

The prime minister has signed the state secretary’s appointment papers and these await the president’s signature.

He will replace Gabor Zombor, who resigned from the post at the end of August citing personal and family reasons.

Onodi-Szucs has previously headed the Kenezy Hospital in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary. He became a regional director of the state-owned health-care management institute GYEMSZI (renamed AEEK) in February, 2012 before being appointed as its head.

The radical nationalist Jobbik party said the appointment of a new state secretary means that Fidesz has “no long-term solution” for fixing health care. The party said in a statement that although Onodi-Szucs says he intends to focus on the problems of the people, he should “come clean” on how much money he can get the government to spend on health care. Jobbik said that if the state secretary fails to persuade the government to spend enough, public health care is set for a “prolonged crisis”. Jobbik said it expects Onodi-Szucs to find solutions to hospitals’ growing debts, the emigration of health-care workers and the sector’s “general underfunding”.