Two decades of ‘medic migration’ rocks central Europe as Covid hits home again

As the second wave of coronavirus locks down central Europe fears are growing over pressure on already-strained health staff.

Two decades of emigration and historic underfunding are being blamed.

Staffing could become even more critical than equipment shortages across the region.

Medical staff have been leaving central Europe in their thousands since 2004 when their countries joined the EU.

Now Peter Almos, vice-president of the Hungarian Chamber of Doctors, has said the problem is compounded by the fact that doctors in their 40s and 50s, who could train colleagues, are missing from health care services.

And Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova, supported his view by saying many of Slovakia’s doctors now fall in to the older age categories and are vulnerable to Covid-19.

Almos said that many trained doctors ‘leave and don’t come back complaining about the low salaries and poor working conditions at home’. 

He said: “At the moment resident doctors make €3 per hour after taxes, or €6 as a specialist. If you work in Tesco in Hungary as a cashier you can earn more.”

Things are a bit different in Slovakia however, where official figures say that physician earn from 1,880 EUR to 8,660 EUR a month.

But Hungary has recently approved a significant pay increase for doctors. People fear, however, there are too many ‘strings’ attached.

According to Eurostat data, Poland has the lowest number of practising physicians per capita in the EU, with 238 per 100,000 inhabitants, while Romania has 304 and Hungary 338.

Slovakia has 352 for every 100,000 inhabitants.

By comparison, just over the imaginary borders Austria has 524 and Germany 431.

Because of the crisis Milan Kubek, head of the Czech Medical Chamber, has asked Czech doctors working abroad to come home.

This plea has gone out to Slovak medics aboard too.

Meanwhile, the number of new confirmed cases over a one day period in Slovakia has reached what the Health Ministry described as a record high with more than 40,800 confirmed and 159 virus-related deaths.

The ministry said this as Slovak authorities ambitiously set out to test almost the entire population for coronavirus.

At the same time most countries are referring to a ‘common map’ that gives an overview of the pandemic.

This map looks at the notification rate  – the total number of newly notified COVID-19 cases per 100 000 population in the last 14 days in each region

Data is then compiled and analysed by the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC).

The Common Map works on a traffic light basis.

Sadly, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for coronavirus.

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