MIGRATION OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS IN HUNGARIAN HEALTHCARE SECTOR – LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Medical migration is a global phenomenon, an important challenge of globalization and the current global economic trend, which plays a critical role in the operation and maintenance of healthcare systems. This applies to Hungary as well, the migration of health professionals has been a problem that has seriously threatened the Hungarian healthcare system for at least 20 years. In my research, I conducted an integrative literature review of 8 scientific articles about the migration of Hungarian healthcare professionals published in the last 5 years (2018-2022), which I found in the PubMed and ScienceDirect publication databases. The aim of my review study is to provide a complete and satisfactory summary of the literature examining and analyzing the current migration trend in Hungarian healthcare, as this way, even with the lack of the official statistical data, we can gain insight into the current situation. Examining the profile of migration, it can be seen that the situation is most critical in the professions of internal medicine, family medicine, and infant and pediatric medicine in terms of medical specialization, while and in terms of country provision and demographics, there is the most prominent shortage of specialists in Békés, Nógrád, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Tolna and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties compared to other counties. The labor crisis in Hungarian primary healthcare is gradually escalating and also within ten years, Hungary will face a severe shortage of pediatricians. Optimizing the working conditions of healthcare workers is a political and social interest, which would probably take a long time, but could ensure high-quality care in the long run. One of the most important conclusions of the review is that Hungarian healthcare workers abroad left primarily because of better quality of life and more favorable financial conditions, but some of the research results showed, that changes in these conditions at home would encourage them to return home.