Many Hungarian healthcare professionals intend to work abroad

2010-02-16

In 2009, 1,614 doctors and other healthcare professionals asked for the nostrification of their certificates in order enable them to work abroad. In 2009 the number of nurses who intended to leave the country tripled in comparison with the previous year, reaching 419. According to Zoltan Balogh, the head of the Chamber of Hungarian Health Care Professionals, the average monthly net salary of a nurse is HUF 80,000 (€300) in Hungary, which could be as little one-fifth of the amount they could earn abroad. He added that the situation was more favourable a few years before, when Romanian professionals worked in Hungary, but after Romania became an EU member state, they also chose to work in Western European countries.