Changes of payment of physicians between 1998 and 2021 in Hungary

Abstract

The development of the medical career model is a priority issue from the point of view of safe patient care. In our research, we aimed to examine the average monthly income of doctors employed in Hungary between 1998 and 2021, especially with regard to the significant increase in medical payment in 2021. Data were derived from the database of the National Directorate General for Hospitals. Doctors employed full-time in all public health institutions were included in our time-series analysis. In our institutional-level analysis, we considered all employed doctors of all public hospitals. Each healthcare institution was grouped according to the type of institution. The payment of full-time doctors in Hungary increased by 16.1 times between 1998 and 2021. In 2020, the payment of hospital doctors at the national level was 767505 Ft (2186 €), while in 2021, as a result of the increase in medical income, it was 1415481 Ft (3948 €) (+84%). In 2021, this was 1435972 Ft (4005 €) in national institutes, 1204258 Ft (3359 €) in clinical centers, 1397181 Ft (3897 €) in capital hospitals, 1520821 Ft (4242 €) in county hospitals and 1688726 Ft (4710 €) in city hospitals. The difference between the highest and the lowest payment was 1.90 times in national institutes, 1.26 times in clinical centers, 1.93 times in capital hospitals, 1.47 times in county hospitals and 1.75 in city hospitals. In 2021, as a result of the increase in medical incomes, the average incomes increased significantly. We observed significant differences between the types of institutions. Orv Hetil. 2023; 164(29): 1146-1154.