Despite the “sanctions crisis”, the government will provide new resources for next year’s wage increases for health workers, so the wages of doctors, nurses, and other employees working in the health sector will continue to rise, Bence Rétvári, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, told MTI.
The state secretary said that on January 1, the last step in the wage increase agreement reached between the government and the Hungarian Medical Chamber – during the epidemic – will take place. Starting in January, doctors’ wages will increase by an additional 11 percent.
This increases the salary of a starting doctor from HUF 619,000 to HUF 687,000. The salary of a mid-career doctor with 21-25 years of experience will increase from HUF 1.5 million to HUF 1.65 million. The salary of the most experienced doctor, who has been in the field for 40 years, will increase from HUF 2.1 million to HUF 2.38 million. (Of course, these are all gross amounts – ed.)
The doctor’s wage increase was able to stabilize the number of doctors in the hospitals, but at the same time, the government decided on a further wage increase for the sake of the adequate number of specialist nurses, said Bence Rétvári.
The state secretary emphasized that the new nurses’ wage increase will take place in two stages: the first stage on July 1, 2023, and the second stage on March 1, 2024.
“In the first phase of the wage increase, the government will provide 41.5 billion forints for the wage increase of skilled workers, 8.4 billion forints for the wage increase of health workers, i.e. nearly 50 billion forints in total, through the Health Insurance Fund. The necessary coverage for the second phase of the wage increase must be provided during the 2024 central budget”
– Rétvári said to MTI’s question.
As a result of the nursing wage increase, according to the government’s plans, by March 1, 2024, the average basic salary of healthcare professionals should reach 37 percent of the average medical basic salary. This ratio would thus be the same as the relative ratio of European average medical and nursing wages.
The state secretary reminded that since 2010, the government implemented the largest salary increase in the health sector, since then the salary of nurses has increased by an average of three times, the last time there was a 21 percent salary increase for nurses was in January 2022. Specialist doctors currently receive five times or even nine times the basic salary of what it was before the change of government in 2010.
“Despite the wartime energy crisis and the economic difficulties caused by the sanctions, the government is raising wages in the health sector, and hospital developments are taking place all over the country, because for us the health of the Hungarian people is always a priority”
– emphasized Bence Rétvári.
