Nemes János: Healing Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)

Let the Figures Talk

Fi uns at the sick-bed again

The number of doctors has increased enormously: in contrast with the four thousand in 1900, there are ten times as many today. Three quarters of them are active practitioners, the remaining are retired. There are thus 310 patients per doctor. This figure is outstanding not only on a European scale, but internationally, too. Also, it is significant that every fortieth employee in the country (some 250 thousand people) works for the health care.

What, then, are health care services like in the capital?

If we consider that the two million inhabitants of Budapest have eighty hospitals, institutions, university hospitals accommodating 31 thousand beds (two thirds of them are urgency beds), which is well above the national standard, Hungary is heading the European league. On the other hand, going behind these figures, knowing that our health care institutions are one hundred years old on average, the situation is far from bright.

Basic medical services in Budapest include 867 general practitioners and 351 paediatricians. They are fairly overburdened, as they treat over nine thousand adult patients and six thousand children on average

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