The historic salary increase for doctors has been accepted at lightning speed, but it will also come at a price

Given by Gergely Gulyás, Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Miklós Kásler, Minister of Human Resources, on the legal situation of the health service The law was approved unanimously by 165 votes in favor.

One of the novelties of the legislation is that establishes a relationship with the health service; In the future, health care may only be performed by a state or municipal health care provider within the framework of such legal relationship.

The framework for salary increase, calculation and salary qualification has been established, as well as the service acknowledgments associated with the legal relationship, the rules of leave of absence, working hours and registration.

Detailed rules regarding employment, salary, qualification and non-salary benefits are set out in a government decree.

Important rules about conflicts of interest

Conflict of interest rules include that a person in a legal health service relationship may establish a legal relationship for further work only with the prior permission of a government designated body, including other gainful activities and paid activities.

In practice, this puts physicians up to a decision: whether to choose the public or private sector.

The exceptions to this rule are legally protected scientific, educational, artistic, review, editorial, intellectual activities and the employment relationship of foster parents. But these activities also require prior permission from a government body if the duration of work is partly equal to the person’s working hours in a health service relationship.

The traceability of the care provided to patients explains the rule that, except in urgent cases, a doctor may not care for a patient who, in another legal relationship, has already been treated for the same disease. However, exemptions from this restriction may also be granted in certain cases specified in a government decree, such as in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

By law, in the future, a doctor may not carry out health care activities at the headquarters or at the facilities of the health care provider who employs him that are not covered by his legal relationship with the health service.

That particular pay scale

The salary increase, taking into account the practical time, based on the proposal of the Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK), begins on January 1, 2021 and lasts until 2023, affects doctors, specialists, dentists, dentists, pharmacists, pharmacists. other non-medical employees of the health service.

We write about the essential points of the bill here:

January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021
	Practical time	Amount (gross monthly amount)
one	0-2 years	481 486
two	3-5 years	613 134
3	6-10 years	861 848
4	11-15 years	979 473
5	16-20 years	1044 175
6	21-25 years	1 158 975
7	26-30 years	1 256 300
8	31-35 years	1 307 997
9	36-40 years	1 417 967
10	41 years	1 666 040
Source: Bill, Portfolio

January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022
	Practical time	Amount (gross monthly amount)
one	0-2 years	619 053
two	3-5 years	788 315
3	6-10 years	1 108 091
4	11-15 years	1 259 322
5	16-20 years	1 342 511
6	21-25 years	1 490 087
7	26-30 years	1 615 243
8	31-35 years	1 681 710
9	36-40 years	1 823 100
10	41 years	2 142 051
Source: Bill, Portfolio

January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2022
	Practical time	Amount (gross monthly amount)
one	0-2 years	687 837
two	3-5 years	875 906
3	6-10 years	1 231212
4	11-15 years	1 399 247
5	16-20 years	1 491 679
6	21-25 years	1 655 653
7	26-30 years	1 794 715
8	31-35 years	1 868 567
9	36-40 years	2025 667
10	41 years	2380 057
Source: Bill, Portfolio

The MOK protested against it and then, at the proposal of the Legislative Committee of Parliament, the provision that doctors’ salaries could be reduced by 20 percent, for example, on the basis of qualification was removed from the proposal.

Is gratitude over?

The law criminalized gratitude money by supplementing the penal code of bribery and accepting bribery with the granting and acceptance of improper advantages. According to the amendment, anyone who grants or promises an improper advantage will be punished with a prison term of up to one year for a misdemeanor.

What constitutes an undue advantage is established by the Health Law. Based on this, the health worker, the doctor may not request or accept any monetary, economic or in-kind consideration.

After treatment, the health worker can accept an item once, the value of which does not exceed 5 per cent of the current monthly minimum wage (currently eight thousand florins).

Doctors can be assigned

They allowed a fixed-term service commission of up to one year. This can be extended for one year. The interested party must be informed in writing of the commission of services at least ten business days in advance, along with its expected duration.

The law will enter into force on November 18, and most of its provisions will be applicable from January 1, so the legal relationship of those involved will be transformed into that of a health service.

An application must be submitted before March 1 to continue activities that will be subject to authorization.

The head of the health care provider may decide not to apply the law later in the institution he runs, but later, but on April 1, this cannot be a later date. In this case, the difference between the doctors’ old salary and their new salary must be paid at the same time as the March 2020 salary, no later than April 5, 2021.

We write about the expected consequences here:

This is how the Minister evaluates

Miklós Kásler, the Human Resources minister, called the health care bill, including the increase in medical salaries, historically important in the parliamentary debate on the proposal on Tuesday.

In his presentation, Miklós Kásler, the Minister of Human Resources, put it this way: during the coronavirus epidemic, there is a need for cooperation and trust within Hungarian society and especially in healthcare.

Part of the consolidation is also the large-scale liquidation of doctors’ salaries, he added.

He stated that by 2023, according to the government proposal, the current salary of a rookie resident doctor will increase to HUF 687,000, the salary of a specialist with 40 years of professional experience increases from 525 thousand HUF to 2,380 thousand HUF.

The bill is momentous because it offers a new path to long-term Hungarian healthcare and could permanently end pre-2010 uncertainty, ideological measures, practices that push the boundaries of legality, financial vulnerability and morale of patients and health workers, said Miklós Kásler.

In Hungary, the treatment of the first phase of the coronavirus epidemic was exemplary, the minister said, noting that the next period also required great physical and mental efforts on the part of doctors and health workers, who bear the greatest burden. .

He recalled that in the first phase of the epidemic the government awarded the work of all health workers with a single award of 500,000 florins, and in the second phase it wants to express its gratitude even more emphatically, as doctors it will continue to be.

According to him, the conditions to intensify the salary increase for doctors and nurses are already known. He called this a long-awaited change that the government considers of utmost importance even in the midst of a pandemic.

The current wage system is an essential condition for the comprehensive transformation of health care and the subsequent success of the national public health program.

He notices.

A definite goal, he continued, is to keep them at home, if possible, further improving the economic recognition and working conditions of doctors and nurses, and offering them an attractive professional image, because “their country needs them so much.”

Regarding the settlement of doctors’ salaries, the Minister pointed out: the government accepted the alternative proposed by the Hungarian Medical Chamber.

The proposal lays the groundwork for a revolutionary increase in medical salaries, defines the concept, scope and ethical standards of the legal relationship of the medical service, and also includes the criminalization of gratitude money, he explained.

Since 2010, the government has been taking consistent steps to help restore health care: Since 2010, 91 rural hospitals, 54 clinics, 107 ambulances have been renovated and 23 new clinics and 34 new ambulances have been built, he said.

The minister said that the comprehensive salary increase program for health professionals is underway, with a salary increase next November.

By 2022, a nurse will earn an average of two and a half times more than in 2019. Salaries for doctors and specialists have doubled on average since 2010, and the work of paramedics has also been highly recognized by the government, with a 67 percent salary increase between 2016 and 2018, supplemented by another 10 percent from January 1, 2018, he said.

Cover Image Source: MTI / Illyés Tibor