Vitalyos: Left’s actions ‘disingenuous’

The previous government led by Ferenc Gyurcsany withdrew 600 billion forints (EUR 1.5bn) from health care, dismissed 6,000 employees in the sector, scrapped one-month worth of payment for doctors and nurses, reduced capacity in hospital beds and introduced a hospital visit fee, she said, adding that as a result of those measures Hungary’s health care almost collapsed.

The incumbent government is however spending currently two and a half times more on health care than the Gyurcsany government did in 2010, Vitalyos said. She noted a substantial pay hike for doctors and nurses, development projects including the refurbishment of 91 hospitals in the countryside and the refurbishment and construction of over 200 other facilities.

“Over the past period we have spent more than 500 billion forints on developments in the health-care sector,” she said on Facebook.

As regards education, Vitalyos said that the previous government had closed down several hundred schools, close to 300 kindergartens, dismissed 14,000 teachers and 1,191 kindergarten nurses while it had continuously raised the price of text books.

She noted that the incumbent government’s measures include an unprecedented wage increase for teachers, the development of 5,680 schools and kindergartens and the construction of 31 schools, 87 gym rooms and 57 swimming pools for training students, among others

“The government is reducing the burden of the families of 1.2 million children by providing them free text books,” Vitalyos said.