Healthcare in Hungary

Hello Julien,

In Hungary, everyone has to pay national health insurance from the monthly salary, it is deducted by the employer.
If you pay national health insurance then almost treatment is free even in hospitals.

The reality is worse, our doctors are underpayed badly, some of them expect gratuities (mainly in hospitals). You can find very modern and good hostpitals / surgeries and ruins too.. depends on the riches of the city's council.

If u can afford it, purchase private insurance.

Entity

Hi Entity!

Thanks for your help!

Armand

I hate the healthcare here.
I have been misdiagnosed and thrown antibiotics one too many times.  The doctors are so rude they've left me in tears more than once.
I finally bought a yearly subscription at First Med (www.firstmedcenters.com) and it is the kindest, cleanest, most thorough place ever. Expensive, but worth the peace of mind.
My husband is Hungarian and must buy the national insurance.  Sure, you get to go everywhere for "free", but they never tell you the correct thing.  He has gone to 3 different doctors for an earache, and got 3 different answers and medications, and his problem isn't solved.  Was given the wrong prescription for eyeglasses too, at two different opticians.
The idea of bribing doctors to get decent care makes me sick.  Where is the EU and their anti-corruption when you need it?

octobop wrote:

...The idea of bribing doctors to get decent care makes me sick.  Where is the EU and their anti-corruption when you need it?

A non-corrupt EU is an oxymoron.  Unelected, overpaid and a jobs for the boys system I'm afraid. No chance of any reform from them.  Fiddle and fudge while Rome burns.

octobop wrote:

The idea of bribing doctors to get decent care makes me sick.

Look at this this way: In the US the "bribe" is simply instead called a "co-payment".

Hi,

In order to help expats and soon-to-be expats, we would like to invite you to share your experience on this topic, with updated info on the healthcare system.

Thank you in advance,

Julie
Expat.com Team

Always carry your EC health card. I was ambulanced to hospital unexpectedly without it and I had serious problems being let out of hospital without payment.

We have used it extensively and are very happy.  Doctors here are well trained and all specialists have real PhDs so are at the top of their game. I am a PhD Immunologist and I can categorically state that medical doctors in the US who get PhD's get a "special" one given for minimal work in 2 years. Regardless, the professionalism is the best you can ask for. Being retired US Army we are "entitled" to Tricare for Life which pays 65% of allowable costs after annual per person minimal deductions. We pay cash for everything and it is far less than paying even the deductions so we don't bother filing claims to Tricare any more.  The error rate for Tricare is over 400% (meaning even after 3 resubmissions they still get it screwed up) as it is bid out by the Department of Defense to the lowest bidder contractor who hires claim technicians with no experience for minimum wage. Yes, a "tip" is often required but it is usually less than $40 so less than a typical co-pay in the US. Often I am not charged at all for services. We have used the system a lot over the past 6 years.  For example I had cataract surgery and it cost less than $800 cash, my wife broke her leg in Sarajevo and had pins and screws etc. (the original surgery including 7 days in the hospital was less than $1000 cash in Sarajevo) and the removal was done in Hungary after 1 year and cost less than $600 for everything.  We have had CT scans and MRI scans none of which was more than $250. My mother who is 90 and lives with us has macular degeneration and requires intra-ocular injections.  In the US it cost her more than $5000 per injection which is not covered by Medicare or supplemental insurance.  Here we pay $1400 for an even better medication not available in the US.  Before she required monthly injections but here it has been once every 6 months or less frequently. In general prescription medications are less than 10% of the cost you pay in the US for the exact same medications. Even if you are here on a temporary 5 years visa you can purchase the national insurance for roughly $250 a month which would cover nearly everything but yes, you are expected to tip if you can afford it.  It is not a requirement and it is not corruption. Physicians are State employees and are on a fixed salary which is roughly $1500 a month.  Can you imagine doctors in the US working for these kinds of salaries? All doctors also typically work for cash in the evenings, often in the government clinics. If you want fast and excellent service then pay cash, otherwise you get in line using the national health insurance (similar as seen in Canada or the UK).  We pay cash for everything, get prompt and excellent service, and even with major medical procedures we haven't ever spent more than $2500 a year per person. The facilities are adequate and equipment generally modern. But most facilities are utilitarian and not luxurious.  If you have been in the US military it is typical for us and not worse than typical military or VA hospitals which are also utilitarian. I cannot complain at all.  There are some nuances such as food when you are an inpatient. Every hospital has one or more private vendors on premises so it is easy to just buy better meals and it is cheap. A tip will get you better care and a better room. It is certainly appreciated regardless. Also, many things done by technicians and/or nurses in the US are done by physicians here.  Pharmacists are all doctors, x-rays done by radiologists, lab work is done by pathologists etc. That is something particularly surprising and it yields far better service in the long run. They don't even understand what you mean when you ask about technicians doing the work. Before getting my doctorate I was an x-ray technician, ultrasound tech and medical technologist so I know the medical business inside and out (both civilian and military). The care in Hungary is IMHO better than that in the US (yes you can get good care in the US but it is going to cost you and often the doctors are poorly trained foreigners from Mexico or India/Pakistan no insult intended but these foreign trained "doctors" actually have Bachelor's degrees and technically are not doctors at an academic level). Every doctor I have met (and I know a lot socially) are interested in providing good health care and are not motivated by profits. The ethics are completely different than in the US. I could go on and on with comparisons but where it counts the care is superior regardless of the spartan environment.

Hello all

@borschelrh : A proper text format, with paragraphs would make your post more readily readable 

Kenjee
Expat.com Team

kenjee wrote:

Hello all

@borschelrh : A proper text format, with paragraphs would make your post more readily readable 

Kenjee
Expat.com Team

He won't be able to edit it any more due to the 60 minutes time restriction.  But yes, formatting would surely help.

What can I say all the good doctors are so old they can't see or they have left the country for more money.
My husband is Hungarian and now I also have national heath as a requirement for my resident visa.
I do go to a private dentist because the one for our district is a scammer. My husband paid cash for crowns that cost double what a private dentist would of charged. On top of that the national health dentist didn't have posted prices or give a receit. He also tried to charge twice for the same work.
I used to see private doctors before we had national health cards.
We pay out of pocket every month since we are of retirement age and don't work in Hungary.
I had knee surgery in Budapest and I could write a book about the nightmare it was. In the end instead of walking better within 2 weeks time after surgery, I was still using crutches for 4 months afterwards and a cane for another year. Still would be using a cane if I had not gone home to the US and gotten real Physical Therapy for 2 months time.Had some PT in Hungary pre surgery and the young Therapist was really nice and good but she had no modern equipment like in the US. Only had a few stretch bands and on machine for giving electric therapy with. I bought my own machine for home use, the national health did pay for part of that which was good.
After my knee surgery in HU I was still swollen up and couldn't walk, my surgeon just said," sorry that's all I can do for you!" I was left a cripple ! I tipped him too!! Was better off pre operation.
I shared my room with a 86 year old Hungarian lady who had broken her hip. She was in for 2 weeks. They got tired of her and removed her call bell and device for pulling herself up from the bed.
Her grandson visited everyday and tipped everyone too.
I only spent 28 hours in hospital, thankfully.
During the night of my surgery, I woke up with 2 nurse screaming at this poor old women, made her cry.
Nothing I could do but put on my earplugs and eye cover and pretend I was sleeping. It was horrible and scary.
The next morning they put her full bedpan near my bed for a good 20 mins. They moved the older lady to another bed to change her bedding but they left her totally butt naked without covering her up and had the door wide open for the world to see her.
I tipped one nurse, the only one who ever did a thing for me during the 28 hours. She brought in a walker so i could get up post surgery. They literally gave us stale bread and luke warm unsweetened tea for breakfast and dinner was the same except for one slice of lunch meat.
I think people on death row are treated better.
Nightmare.
I am only 60 and in good health but seriously wish to go home before I get much older and my health goes bad or I have an accident here.
Would rather die then go into hospital in HU again.
Oh, forgot to mention how rude the orderly was, a male orderly too.
My operation was for 1 pm had to be in hospital at 8 am to get my bed.
My husband was with me, none of the staff spoke a word of English, only my doctor did.
My husband seemed stressed so I sent him home for a couple of hours. My doc came in and said, "Good news, we will take you at 10am not 1pm" I'm a big girl so didn't want to bother my husband to run back and hold my hand.
The male orderly came in to prep me for surgery, Why not have a women?
Anyways, he literally threw a sheet at me and motioned for me to strip naked. I said OK but waited for him to turn around at least. He was just standing their staring at me and then pulled at both my socks and at my PJ top. I was so mad I just about walked out of the hospital( should have thinking it over)
I had to place the sheet over my head like a tent because he seemed to want a peep show out of me. Insane and so odd.
I was slightly afraid of being alone with this freak on the lift up to surgery.
Not a good experience at all and I have not even told half of it!

Not sure if the nurse were so rude because I didn't speak Hungarian and they were not sure if I was a tipper or not. I had money to tip with me but none of them deserved a dime.

Went to 3 different skin doc's in HU for a skin cancer spot on my arm. had it in the past and know what it looks like. They all told me it was nothing maybe exzema at the worst. Home in the US was told of course it was basal cell cancer, had the lab look it over etc. Again in HU saw a cancer doctor who told me she couldn't see anything and to come back in 6 weeks. I never went back, what for. (had most of it removed i n Las Vegas when I had a biopsy done, will double check it again this fall when I visit the US) May just get a mamo in the US too, less hassle and don't have to wait months to get it done.
Pay every month for coverage but have not had my annual check up for nearly 2 1/2 years because it almost isn't worth the wait time since they always give me the run around even with tips.
I would say the national health is only good for very minor things or if you actually break a bone that is easy to set.

In reality, I could care less that the nursing staff was rude and did just the very min. they could get away with, could care less that we were served 2 day old bread to eat with tea and could care less that the room was last done up in 1952.
What I do care about was I had surgery that left me in a worst state then I was beforehand.Not given any leads on what to do next to improve my condition and was left worst for wear.
In the US I found out my surgery did not do a thing for my genetic condition of my knees, need a serious, major surgery to even think of having somewhat"normal" working knees.
The intensive physical therapy I received in the US has allowed me to ditch my cane and to stand without pain.
if they had given me PT with real modern equipment and follow up visits with a qualified orthopedic doctor I never would of taken a bed away in hospital from someone who really needed the bed.
It is really a sad state of affairs.

As a matter of fact I have a cousin I met in Poland 2 years ago who is from Hungary.
she and her Hungarian husband( we are Ruysn's) were both born and raised in Hungary and both are doctors who left Hungary more then 20 years ago for the UK.
She sort of rolled her eyes when I told her I had knee surgery just a couple months before our family reunion in Poland.
like I said, the good doctors have left Hungary the rest are stuck in their ways, old an or just out of school getting their training by butchering the locals.Practice make perfect as the saying goes...
Every month we pay exactly 6,930 forints each for Hungarian national coverage.
Not sure what you get what sort of insurance costs $250 a month in HU but they better do something for that much.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....What I do care about was I had surgery that left me in a worst state then I was beforehand...
It is really a sad state of affairs.

I sympathise. Mrs Fluffy's uncle was probably done in by incompetent surgery.  He was in for a heart valve repair which obviously had some risks but then again, with the "Professor" supervising this should have been done properly.  The "Professor" was at home while his underlings were carrying out the operation.  They did not put the stitching close enough together (inexperience?) when rejoining some "pipes" and it subsequently failed leading to a fatal bleed. It seems it could have been an easily avoidable death and obviously this raises the issue of negligence.   If it was somewhere else then it would have ended in lawsuit. However, here, it seems ranks closed and nothing was done and it was considered complications. Shocking stuff.

I am very sorry to hear about Mrs. Fluffy's uncle.
What a shame and waste of life.
I have a feeling students worked on my knee with my doctor watching, very sloppy work.
I went from a super active person who did yoga for hours a day to a 95 year old using a cane.
Thank God I went home and had a few "real" doctors look me over.
My operation in Hungary was useless and never addressed my real knee issues, just made them worst.
Been doing daily PT at home for the past 18 months now and much better but no thanks to the surgery in Hungary.
My husband had a routine hernia surgery in Budapest 20 months back or so in the national health system hospital. Everything went well, he was in a different hospital then I was sent to. His nursing staff was "normal" and the care was average without any big issues.
He had checked out a private clinic first for his operation. They have so many restrictions on who they will take in. Husband has slight high BP and they won't take people with high BP. They want to make money without any risks on their end.
No choice for him but to go into national health for his hernia surgery.
Next time , well let's hope there is no next time.
Scary to know your health care all comes down to what district you live in. With the national health you must go where they send you.

hello all,

looks like i might be the odd-one-out here !!

364 days into my 1year residence, the day before i could start to pay my voluntary national insurance, my retina detached, and i went blind in that eye 

the county town hospital in szombathely was excellent, the staff attentive & caring [perhaps because they had an 'oddity' ensconced in room 502!!], my E111 card was accepted readily, the surgery was first class, the aftercare beyond reproach AND i got my eyesight back, without the need to 'tip' anybody ...... its different eyesight, but eyesight all the same

yes, the building was shabby in places [not in theatre, where it counts most], the 'queueing' system [and i use that word advisedly], was shambolic, the hospital food was meager [but then i was hardly running a marathon each day of my stay], and the 'suck it and see' approach to the follow-up Kontrol visits was unusual .... but gave me plenty of time for daydreaming / reading / social networking / coffees / people watching

we DID take in gifts for the most outstanding individuals afterwards, but that goes with gratitude

i'd do it all again if it wasn't so traumatic in the first place

PS: enrolled in the National Health upon release, as my 1year was up, and that has been used to provide all the aftercare

have a great weekend everybody, and stay well 

The law is they must take emergency cases even if it is under the time limit of one year.
Glad it worked out for you.

omg!!

some posts on here regarding health care are horrendous!!!!.

I thought dr Frankenstein was just a myth but apparently he is alive and practicing medicine in Hungary!!!!.

do doctors in Hungary  still use leaches there to bleed the demons out of people with mental health problems do doctors still hook up patients to the electricity grid and blast their brains with 50,000 volts to cure depression!!!!.
do you have snake oil sales men peddling a medieval potion for the cure of all ailments!!!.
when you go to a hospital with a gash to an arm or leg does the dr pull out a bottle of whisky not to clean the wound but to drink it as he sews you up with his wife's needle and cotton from her sewing kit!!.
do you have to call an ambulance 3 days in advance!!!.
then when it arrives it it an old blanket tied between two tree branches pulled by a team of 4 pigs with someone sitting o the lead pig ringing an old school bell.

if aliens from the future ever land in Hungary they would open the spaceship door take one look at society and shut the door and hit the warp factor 10 switch, then when they dock with the mother ship they would check their time travel machine because although they landed in 2015 they would think they landed in 1715!!.

Your post was somewhat funny but in reality here in Hungary from what we have experienced over several years is that is is really hit or miss.
The US where I come from has many quacky doctors but they usually work in the pay as you go sort of clinics, sadly that's where most Americans without private health insurance find themselves.
In general health care at least is available in Hungary for a reasonable price.
The worst experience we had with health care in Hungary actually happened back in 1986 when it was still a Soviet ruled country.
We were on a 6 week vacation here to visit my in-laws. We stayed with them in the Erd home and tried not to upset them in any way since they were getting older etc.
My Hungarian born husband, 12 year old son and I went to the Austria /Hungary boarder for a day trip to visit a castle.
They made you put on a sort of slippery sock thing over your shoes so not to mark the old floors.
When they gave them to us, I didn't feel good about it at all, thought it was dangerous and made a silly joke about us ice skating through the castle.
My husband just bought himself a brand new Sony video camera and had it clued to his head, he just wouldn't put it down for anything.
There was a flight of marble stairs inside the castle and I called out for him to be careful but as usual, he didn't hear me or decided not to hear me. He slipped because he wasn't watching where he was going and not wanting to drop his new camera he took the fall down a flight of marble stairs on his back.
He just laid on the bottom of the stairs moaning , he couldn't even talk he was in so much pain.
no one at all spoke any English, one tourist from Germany spoke some broken English but he didn't know Hungarian either.
Some museum employees took him into a back room to rest, I had no clue what was happening to him.
i finally went into the room where he laid and tried to get some info out of him.
They wanted to call a local doctor to look him over but my stubborn husband refused, he told me they were only good for looking at horses and not humans.
He rested for around 3 hours and then insisted on driving back to his parents home in Erd, near Budapest.
a good 3 hours away by car.
I couldn't drive because he was so stressed he wanted to do it himself.
Long horrible ride back to his parents home. Since we were staying with them he wanted to give them the respect of doing things the "Hungarian" way.This meant first calling a local doctor to the house to look him over. A female doctor came about 2 to 3 hours after we called up. She then called an ambulance to take him into the city for an x-ray. Another few hours of waiting for them to show up.
I went with him into the ambulance.
The 2 workers looked like they had spent the entire day working in a field not helping injured people, scary rough guys.
There was already 2 injured people in the van, one poor man was holding a rag to his bloody head, we were off to pick up one more person before they wasted gas on the ride into the city.
The roads in Erd are unpaved, still are that way in many areas. Those insane ambulance people were speeding on bumps my poor husband screamed with every thump on the road.
His ribs were obviously broken already.
The wouldn't slow down when he asked them too, got all huffy and said ,sorry we are not rich like they are in America. really dumb and rude stuff.
My husband told them to go to He** and to let him out of the van.
we both got out and started walking down a dirt road.
Thankfully his older brother heard what had happened and was out looking for the van, he saw us hobbling down the dirt road and picked us up. Took us into Budapest for an x-ray and exam.
Paid around $20. cash since we were not part of national health at that time and were told he just had to stay in bed for a couple of weeks. No bandages or anything just stay in bed.
It is a wonder he didn't puncture a lung the way those idiots were driving, insane stuff.
Then again without health insurance my crazy husband broke his arm back in 75 in S. Calif. and found himself in LA country hospital waiting for his arm to be set for nearly 3 weeks time!! He needed surgery to reset his arm but at LA county there is a waiting list, gun shot and knife wounds first, he would be first for surgery and then after a long night of stabbing and gun shots coming in he found himself at the bottom of the list again, I hate doctors of all sorts from anywhere!
About 2 years ago in the countryside here in Hungary our 83 year old neighbors 59 year old son had an accident while working on his yard. He made the silly mistake of working on sharpening a garden tool while standing on pavement. It came up and cut his leg really badly.
The ambulance took him to the local clinic where he lived and they were going to cut his leg off right there because they said he wouldn't make it into Budapest.
He caught a break, just happened that a skilled surgeon from Budapest was in his village visiting a friend. He got wind of his situation and came into the clinic to help do a surgery right there in the small clinic.
They were able to stablize him so he could come into Budapest for more surgery on his leg. Sort of scary stuff to think if you live in the countryside you could loose a limb for no reason other then it is too remote.
I know in the US they air lift serious cases out but I suppose that doesn't happen much here. Another reason not to move too far away from the city for me.

hi Marilyn,
after reading your post...... I REST MY CASE!!!!!! 

She scares me !!!!

You know me Ann, tell it like it is but actually I am only telling have the BS we went through!!
All good however as long as you stay away from stairs and garden tools!!

the reason Hungary is in the state its in is all down to the European union.

when the soviet union fell apart and all the Baltic states scrambled to get under the umbrella of the eu they thought aaaah we will just send them an e mail telling them we want to join and that will be it.
the eu of course seeing an opportunity to gain more territory thus weakening Russia's position on the world stage granted all the requests.
countries like Hungary and Bulgaria ect  thought all their Christmases had come at once!!.
however there was and is a price to pay for eu membership.
each country Appling for membership has to qualify .
and a very strict financial plan had to be followed.

so each country has to reduce its debt and deficit to within eu regulations.
so Hungary had no alternative other than to raise taxes to try to raise enough cash to meet the criteria imposed on it by the eu.
Hungary has no , steel making, no car building, no industry as such and no foreign investment to bring prosperity to the country, so Hungary is basically like what the uk has become a tax dependant state where the only income government has is from taxing the people.

here in the uk all the utility companies are owned by foreign companies as thatcher flogged them off on the cheap when she was in government so any profit  made by these companies goes out of the uk
most are registered off shore so pay no tax at all.
our steel companies are owned by  india, car makers are all foreign companies ect ect ect,
so if a government has no income from industry it raises taxes from the working class and the poor to balance the books.
once Hungary becomes a full eu member it too will suffer the same fate as us here in the uk.

only the foreign rich will benefit but the ordinary Hungarian citizen will get nothing.
the west you see is driven by greed and the ones who govern us are also driven by greed all  politicians from around the globe are only interested in feathering their own nests . they do not live in the real world.
how can it be morally right that a handful of multi  millionaire's govern the poor masses!.
how can it be morally right or justified that a politician spends more of a bottle of wine per day than most have to live on for a week!

lets not forget these politician who tax us to death do not pay for anything them selves we pay for it. free food free clothes free cars ect ect, all at the expense of the people.

when a society is divided by greed and driven only by money and having to have  even more money, then you get a  two tier society ( them and us ) the them,s have it all but the us have nothing.
and its the them,s who govern the us.
how can this be?.
why have we let this happen?.
the uk 2015 the 5th riches country in the world over 1 million citizen's using food banks, thousands of children going to school hungry because their parents can,t afford breakfast for them.
citizens being charged a bedroom tax because they have a spare bedroom.
then if they can,t pay the bedroom tax are thrown out of their homes .
citizen's forced to work for slave wages because the rich refuse to pay a decent wage.
citizen's dying because the government refuse to pay for life saving drugs yet we give billions every year to other countries' in foreign aid.

why have we let this happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.




.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

They wanted to call a local doctor to look him over but my stubborn husband refused, he told me they were only good for looking at horses and not humans.

IMHO, even a horse doctor knows about blunt force trauma and how to treat it. Stubbornness can result its own host of unnecessary and auxiliary problems.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I know in the US they air lift serious cases out but I suppose that doesn't happen much here.

Hungary has air ambulances. Serious medical conditions can be air lifted to a trauma center.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

once Hungary becomes a full eu member it too will suffer the same fate as us here in the uk.

A bit off topic, but Hungary is a full EU member.

However, there are a number of overlapping supranational memberships of which Hungary is not a member. This is a link to a nice diagram that displays such membership combinations in Europe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supr … ies-en.svg

klsallee wrote:

Hungary has air ambulances. Serious medical conditions can be air lifted to a trauma center.

Yes, they do indeed. The air ambulance operates from a base on the motorway (highway) to Vienna, just outside Budaors/Torokbalint. I drive past it regularly and I see it operating all the time.   Interestingly, they have a variety of helicopters and some of them have Austrian registrations. I'm guessing but I suspect there's a regional sharing system or it's outsourced to a company which covers the entire Western area.  There must be a least another one or two further East. There's defnitely another one in Balatonfured (it's behind the Annagora swimming complex) and next to Aldi. I presume it covers presumably all of Balaton. It's a small country so presumably with the overlaps in services my guess is that they can get anywhere within Hungary within 20mins or less.

I can't say much about air ambulances and such, I only know what I have personally experienced.
As a "guest" in Hungary I can't really say too much about their gov. policies, I'll leave that for it's citizens to figure out.
One reason I agreed to move to Hungary from the US was to "hide" from problems.
I know in the day Hungary was able to produce everything it needed to run as a country on it's own. They produced their own buses, trains but never cars. Not because they couldn't or didn't know how to but for some gov. policy beyond my understanding.
I know in the 1960's people tried to make changes, human ego, greed and wanting to feel like they are more or higher then others is the real reason as a race of humans we can not stop trying to control others and or let greed rule us.
If there was a system where money and coin was not used then the entire world would benefit in all ways.
I know most revolutions fail, even the American revolution could be seen now days are another failure due to people like the Koch bros. Rothchilds etc. running the world stage.
The world in my opinion is being controlled by just a few powerful families.
We as a race are ripe for destruction.
I read somewhere that people get the gov. they deserve, scary that we have set the standard so low.
Ok, that's about as political as I can get, don't want to get a headache by actually thinking,escape is my way of life these days, after 60 years on the planet, I realize I can not do much on my own. Until many like minded people stand up we are all lost.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...
I know in the day Hungary was able to produce everything it needed to run as a country on it's own. They produced their own buses, trains but never cars. Not because they couldn't or didn't know how to but for some gov. policy beyond my understanding..

It's probably the old story that Stalin wanted to divide up the skills amongst the Communist nations so no particular nation had the scope for producing a whole item. Using a car analogy, one country could say, do wheels, another engines and another could do the seats, etc etc. At some point then, someone had to bring it together and that was East Germany with it's Trabants and Wartburgs. The Hungarians have car factories but they are assembly plants - Suzuki has one in Esztergom.  I thinK Ford and Audi have engine plants near Gyor (if they are still there).

Yes there was and may still be allot of skilled talent in Hungary.
I know my husband is a "super" machinist.he has gotten hired so many times just by bringing in one or two extra parts he made. The engineers always are wide eyed and ask,"You made that"?!! Can you PLEASE start on Monday?!
When my husband was in the refugee camp in the early 1970's reps from all different countries would come in and try to recruit him. Germany, S. Africa, Sweden,Canada and the USA. Everyone in the west knew and wanted people with Soviet schooling.
Still have extra parts in my storage unit in Vegas, some part for a nuclear sub, a valve or some such thing.
Not easy to be a refugee without any language skills and still be head machinist in a large co.
The schools in Hungary and other Soviet countries used to be amazing, not sure what is happening these days but I know for sure no young person is interested in learning a trade that takes years and years to learn and there is no big bucks at the end. Everyone wants to only go to university with big bucks waiting at the end of the line for them.
I know to be a machinist you need at least 10 years of practice just to know what you are actually doing on your own.
No one is willing to wait and learn these days .

Not sure why they didn't air lift my neighbors son out from the countryside when he cut his leg up really badly. Perhaps he was bleeding out. He is alive now but still after 2 years can't walk or work in his garden. Not sure what they did to him but he is alive although very depressed.

Your right being stubborn is a killer in itself.
My husband is one of the most stubborn people( aside from my Native American raised mother) that I have even known.
Being so stubborn though has probably done him more good then harm in the long run.
If he wasn't so tough he never would of survived living and escaping Hungary in his youth.
3 months in a Soviet prison for a crime he didn't do, knowing not to sue when he was finally found innocent of all charges( don't rock the boat)
Near death because he never told anyone is was ill at age 5 from Scarlet fever( 6 months in hospital for that with damaged heart value)
near drowning in the Danube twice, once at age 8 when he went swimming with a friend without telling any adult.
Lucky an old fisherman pulled him out from the current. Age 9 fell through the ice in winter when goofing after school with his friends, His clothing was frozen solid on him, never told his mother.
Witnessed a student/protester get smashed under Soviet tank wheels on Oct. 23 1956 when he was age 9, never told his mother, didn't see any reason to upset her more then she already was.
Getting nearly lost in the cold wearing a light jacket in the Swiss Alp's when escaping Hungary at age 23.
Then breaking his arm clear through in Italy and it not setting for over 8 months.
Smuggling himself to Sweden for proper medical care on his arm, only to have it rebreak in Calif a few years later.
If he wasn't so stubborn he would never of left his flat, it is a wonder he is still alive considering some of the insane things that happened to him. Being stubborn and not giving up is the only thing that saved him.
So many Hungarians in the US have really done great for themselves, because being stubborn is somewhat of a national personality trait, they don't give up when others would of thrown in the towel long before hand.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Not sure why they didn't air lift my neighbors son out from the countryside when he cut his leg up really badly. Perhaps he was bleeding out. He is alive now but still after 2 years can't walk or work in his garden. Not sure what they did to him but he is alive although very depressed.

Air ambulances are normally for significant life threatening issues where time is so very critical that ground transport is not an option, or to get the patient to specialized medical tools and professionals that are not found in a normal emergency room if the patient is to have any significant chance to survive: such as a patient with significant internal injuries or injuries requiring a highly skilled specialist (such as a leaking brain aneurysm about to burst that needs the immediate skills of a neurosurgeon).

A leg injury is certainly a potentially life threatening injury, especially if the femoral artery is cut. But in most cases a normal ground ambulance crew can stabilize the patient with a leg injury enough for standard ground transport, and most normal emergency rooms can handle this type of injury.

If the medical staff at the hospital emergency room does a good job or not attending to that injury, is the issue being discussed here. And as you, in my opinion, correctly mentioned earlier: that may depend on where you end up for treatment.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Being so stubborn though has probably done him more good then harm in the long run.

Off topic, but: it seems your husband has what I call a "I'll tough it out" life view. I appreciate people like that.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Suzuki has one in Esztergom. I thinK Ford and Audi have engine plants near Gyor

Off topic, but there is also a GM/Opel's plant in Szentgottard and Daimler AG's Mercedes plant in Kecskemet.

Yes back in the early 1970's we witnessed a Hell's Angel go over the center divider slightly and get nipped by a car. It was on a very curvy mountain road , the bikers were traveling 3 and 4 abreast, not a good idea.( This was in Calif.)
The guys leg got mangled in the spooks of his wheel when he fell off.
A few bikers had to "haul ass" to find a phone for help. ( No cell phones back then)
An air ambulance had to take the guy off but we all had to stay with him for nearly one hour before they showed up.
Heard later he lost his leg.
It was a bad experience.

Sadly a lot of healthcare in the UK depends on luck and the area where you live. I am assuming that it is equally a hit or miss situation in Hungary.

For example  the hospital system in the midlands Uk was terrible when I lived there.
When I moved to the South Coast the service was wonderful. Lets hope I never need to use the system and I can afford to go privately when the time comes. However even Private Services can offer variable services.

I think you basically nailed it Ann.
What district you live in makes a huge difference. Wish I had known that before we bought our flat in the 7th!
My husbands bro's good school mate does internal med. My husband went private with him in the past and the guy was fantastic, even served me mineral water and put Mozart on for me in his private clinic in his beautiful home while he checked out my hubby.
Trusted this man 100% but he is not in our district and sadly he is getting a bit on in years, won't be around much longer to care for any price.
Seems the most talented doc's are leaving Hungary to make $"bank" in the west or they are dying off...

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

( This was in Calif.)

Distances to hospitals are much greater in California (and many Western States) and there some very remote and isolated areas in those states, making the need for air ambulances more common. Comparing the use of air ambulances in Hungary to equally dense areas, such as the US East coast, might be more appropriate.