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Budapest to receive government money to reduce cancer diagnosis time to 10 days
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Starting this October, healthcare institutions in Budapest will start receiving government money to increase the capacity of CT and MRI machines, in an attempt to cut the long waiting lists of cancer patients. In exchange, institutions will be obliged to provide a diagnosis within ten days.
As part of the Healthy Budapest Programme (Egészséges Budapest Program), Budapest is entitled to receive HUF 50 billion (EUR 140 million) from the government, to be spent on the development of the local healthcare system in the next five years, reports Azonnali. Gábor Havasi, the healthcare counsellor of the local government of Budapest, says that the agreement was concluded in more peaceful times, “before cuts were introduced on financial resources due to COVID-19 and controversies around the Chain Bridge“.
Currently, patients with tumour and some other health problems are bound to endure long waiting lists as there is a lack of resources to increase the capacity of CT and MRI scanners. Besides, the current government regulation only stipulates that patients with suspected tumour must be examined within 14 days, but nothing regulates the time of delivery of medical record to the patients, which can easily take months.
In exchange of increasing the capacity of these machines, the new agreement will require health institutions to provide a medical record within ten days: seven days for the examination, and three days for the delivery of results.