Hungarian government: Health care staff salaries to double in 2010-2020

Budapest (MTI) – A total 96,000 doctors and nurses have received a pay rise since 2010, and all employees in Hungarian health care will have had their pay doubled by the end of the decade, Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog told public Kossuth Radio on Sunday.

Balog said the majority of doctors’ incomes comprises overtime pay and other kinds of benefits. The government is determined that their fixed salary should reflect “the work they do” and is comparable to doctors’ salaries in other European countries.

Addressing complaints that the salaries of junior doctors participating in a special government programme with stipends of 150,000 forints (EUR 490) a month had reverted to 107,000 forints (EUR 350) after completing the scheme, Balog said that the problem only affected an estimated 100 specialists and no one would have a lower salary than before the programme was instated.