The government accepted the proposal presented by the Hungarian Chamber of Doctors representing a breakthrough pay rise for physicians, while an agreement was also reached regarding the phasing out of gratuities, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in a video message posted on his Facebook account after delegations of the government and the chamber met on Saturday morning, after several months of preparatory work.

The subject-matter of the meeting was the coronavirus epidemic situation. “We all see that the epidemic is in an ascending phase, and as long as there is no vaccine, it will stay there,” the Prime Minister said, adding that after the talks in Brussels on the previous day he can conclude that we cannot realistically expect a vaccine any time sooner than the middle of next year.

Therefore, in the coming seven to eight months, hospitals will be faced with an enormous workload. Both physicians and nurses will have to make superhuman efforts “to cure everyone who has contracted the virus and to provide appropriate care for them,” Mr Orbán pointed out.

He said the chamber of doctors made it clear – and the government agreed – that physicians would hardly be able to make these superhuman efforts at the present pay level.

“We need to stand together, this is the moment when we must achieve a breakthrough improvement in doctors’ pay,” the Prime Minister stressed.

He announced that the government had accepted the pay scale presented by the chamber representing an unprecedented pay rise. The bill regarding this will be submitted to Parliament on Monday. They also agreed that parallel with this, gratuities would be removed from the Hungarian care system.

There is good cooperation between the chamber of doctors and the government, we can stand united also at this level. If we stand together, we will succeed as we already did once before,” the Prime Minister said.

(The Prime Minister/MTI)