The Hungarian Chamber of Doctors is encouraging the employees of Eger’s Ferenc Markhot Hospital to stick to their civil servant status and refuse to work as entrepreneurs, as the new maintainer of the hospital Hospinvest Zrt. has suggested they do.
According to István Éger, head of the chamber, if the hospital workers staunchly refuse to contract with the private investor, it cannot receive an operating permit from ÁNTSZ (National Public Health and Medical Officers Service) because it lacks the number of professional workers legally required. As right-leaning Magyar Hírlap reports, the chamber is willing to take legal steps to assist the doctors and help them avoid making contracts on their own which would shatter this solidarity. According to Éger, the success of the workers might be precedent making, which means it is extremely important.
According to head physician of the hospital Kristóf Mánya, Hospinvest began with inspiring new suggestions at work meetings, but it became clear that they want the doctors to work as entrepreneurs. He added that while the company had promised to keep all the employees, only 60% of the current wage costs are included in the budget. As of last week’s meeting, about a hundred workers have signed a mandate that allows the chamber to protect their civil servant status.
I hope that Hungary does not go to privatization of health care. It’s what we have in the States and for-profit health care is not a good thing at all.
My real-life experience, from Sweden, is the total opposite. The hospitals that went over to private ownership normally outperformed their old public-owned history and other similar public-owned hospitals.
Why? Because the staff, those who wanted to run an efficient customer-oriented business, normally got more involved. The staff received higher salaries and performed better. Customer satisfaction was up.
Article above show just an old trade-union mentality that cost the few taxpayers a lot.
I did some research and found out that privatisation was banned in Sweden:
Sweden bans privatisation of hospitals
BMJ 2004;328:484 (28 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.484-c
Yes the Social Democratic Govt introduced that bill in 2004. Since then it has been a change of Govt to a non-Socialist.
As stated in the article there a few private hospitals since many years. This old bill was trying to stop new from starting up. According to the article you refer to the “Hospital staff and patients reportedly had strong praise for the new system.”, meaning the new private hospitals that the SocialDemocrates stopped.