City Assembly – Placing outpatient care under state control ‘unacceptable’

Noting the government’s decision ten years ago to centralise Budapest’s hospitals, Socialist group leader Csaba Horvath told a press conference that “we are witnessing waiting lists that are miles long, dilapidated buildings and a serious shortage of professionals.”

He said it was “unclear what good would it serve” if the state took over the running of outpatient care, too.

Horvath vowed to block the transfer of outpatient care to the central government when the assembly today considers a draft decree on the municipality maintaining outpatient care in Budapest.

At a separate press conference, Anett Bosz, a deputy mayor fielded by DK, said the current government proposal was similar to the “forced centralisation” of the education system under protest by stakeholders, which resulted in the government failing to perform the tasks it had undertaken. “The same can be expected this time round, too,” she said.

In a vote later on Wednesday, the assembly decided against the government proposal on placing outpatient care providers under state control.

Voting 15 in favour, 1 against and with 9 abstentions, the body approved a proposal submitted by Gergely Karacsony, Budapest’s mayor, on the municipality maintaining the two outpatient care providers it operates. Those include the gynecology and psychiatry outpatient services operated within homeless care in close connection with other institutions in the area.