Opportunity for 1 million people to live a longer a healthier life31 October 2007
Healthcare services in 60-80 settlements and their surroundings around the country may dramatically improve thanks to the calls for applications to be launched in October and November. Renewal of family health centres and extensions to centres will provide services that can be reached within half an hour, which up till now have most often only been available at a hospital located further away. Therefore, the 1 million people living in typically disadvantaged micro-regions will have substantially more opportunities than available at present to recover quickly. Complementary EU funding to the value of 55 billion HUF has been earmarked for these developments to be implemented within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan. This source of financing is the first part of the funding of 481 billion HUF that has been made available for Hungary up to 2013 for the renewal of healthcare services.
The health status of the Hungarian population is one of the poorest in Europe. Hungarian citizens live shorter and unhealthier lives in comparison to the citizens of other European Union member states. Life expectancy at birth for men is 7 years below the EU average, and 4 years below the EU average for women. In the EU 27, Hungary ranks 23rd as regards the number of healthy life years. There are also significant disparities within the country as regards the opportunity to lead a healthy life. Life expectancy at birth for the Roma population is over one decade below the Hungarian average, which is in any case low in European comparison. Mortality rates are least favourable in North Hungary, the North Great Plain and the South Trans-Danubia region. This is no mere accident, since these regions are the most under-developed regions in several other regards as well.
The unhealthy lifestyle of a significant proportion of the population, as well as the structural problems of the healthcare system underlies these extremely unfavourable statistics. The structure of the healthcare system is currently still far too hospital-centric. The number and ratio of patients recovering in basic health care services and outpatient centres fails to reach expectations by a long margin. While in 2004, 13% of all relevant cases were treated within the framework of one-day surgery in Hungary; this ratio is 75% in the USA and 55% in Austria. Outpatient institutions often operate at dispersed sites and with out-of-date infrastructure; the average age of the machinery and instruments is 12-17 years. Conditions for prevention and aftercare are missing, and widespread use of modern diagnostics and remedial practices is low.
In order to stop these unfavourable trends, we began investing EU funding in healthcare modernisation between 2004 and 2006 within the framework of the National Development Plan; however, this amount was by far not as significant as the funding frameworks that are now available. 213 applicants – primarily healthcare enterprises – were approved a total rate of funding of 2.4 billion HUF primarily for infrastructure development. Developments targeting the modernisation of hospitals and clinics to the value of several billion HUF were implemented in under-developed regions. The 12 billion HUF investment of the University of Debrecen model regional health centre was an unprecedented development since political changes took place in Hungary. Healthcare investments with the assistance of EU funding were implemented in, for example, Pécs, Nyíregyháza and Mezőkövesd.
Modernisation of the healthcare system, as well as improving the health status – and consequently employability and quality of life - is one of the priority objectives of the New Hungary Development Plan underlying European Union developments for the 2007-2013 period. We have the opportunity to invest over 311 billion HUF in the development of the healthcare infrastructure during this seven-year period, whilst nearly 60 billion HUF can be allocated for health prevention and human resource development in healthcare. Beyond these central resources, the regional operational programmes ensure a further 115 billion HUF for the modernisation of healthcare over the course of this seven-year period.
This represents a total of 481 billion HUF!
The value of the first calls applications targeting healthcare and available for the development of basic and outpatient services is approximately 51.5 billion HUF. Further calls will be announced on an on-going basis up to the end of the year.
We will be implementing these developments at 3 levels, as a result of which we will establish basic and specialised healthcare hubs throughout the country.
- We will build new health centres in white areas, i.e. in places were these types of services are not available;
- We will create high standard health centres in grey areas, i.e. in areas where there is an insufficient number of bed facilities for the hospital to operate at a good standard, by transforming small hospitals;
- We will establish conditions required for full and high standard operations in brown areas, i.e. in areas where a health care centre nevertheless operates, however full services are either not provided or are not good quality. We will develop diagnostics and the infrastructure, as well as all conditions required for family healthcare services.
The following calls for applications underpin these objectives:
A total of 25 billion HUF is available for local governments in micro-regions with a population of over 13 500 where developments targeting the establishment and development of new micro-regional outpatient healthcare centres will be implemented.
EU funding of 6.4 billion HUF has been allocated for the development of outpatient services replacing hospital services, primarily in the area of surgery, gynaecology, internal medicine and paediatrics.
The calls for
applications of the regions targeting healthcare represent
approximately 20 billion HUF in value. The objective of these
calls is for EU funding to help modernise centres providing basic healthcare
services, as well as outpatient health centres that already operate in
micro-regions.
These developments support creating opportunity and reducing social disparities
by also ensuring equal access to healthcare for residents living in the most
disadvantaged regions. Thanks to all these developments, at least 1 million
people will have faster and closer access to treatment in 60-80 settlements and
their surroundings located in micro-regions around the country.
In addition to these, EU funding of 3.5 billion HUF has been allocated for the development of the ambulance dispatch system of the Hungarian National Ambulance and Emergency Service as a priority project.
National Development Plan I projects over the value of 1 billion HUF:
Beneficiary 1: University of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Centre
Project title: Cardio-vascular and Oncology Complex Regional Health Centre model
Objective: improving the health status of the population of the region, and consequently increasing labour market competitiveness of the population in the North Great Plain and North Hungary regions.
Project description: as regards the coverage of services, the east Hungary clinic covers the needs of the population of two regions (North Great Plain and North Hungary).
The operations of the institution target the treatment of cardio-vascular and tumour diseases and cover all treatment phases of the specific diseases (screening, diagnostics, conventional and surgery therapy, rehabilitation and care).
11 578 m2 net floor space will be reconstructed and a new building with a net floor space of 13 510 m2 will be built within the framework of programme (without increasing the number of beds).
Assurance of modern diagnostics, surgery and other therapy equipment – image diagnostics, clinical laboratory equipment, rehabilitation instruments of the full screening unit - will be implemented.
Rate of assistance: 10 800 000 000 HUF
Beneficiary 2: University of Pécs
Project title: Setting up a Regional Diagnostics Screening Centre at the University of Pécs Medical and Health Science Centre.
Objective: the objective of the project is to renew and modernise the equipment and building of the outpatient services building – out-of-date in terms of structure and equipment alike – operating in Clinic 1 of UV MHHC.
Project description: The investment ensures the opportunity for the region to establish a centre that disposes of a university level knowledge base focusing on high priority diseases and disadvantaged social groups.
By introducing mobile screening, the renewed system will become capable of helping to close the development gap in less-favoured micro-regions and help raise disadvantaged regions to the level of the national average.
Rate of assistance: 2 046 377 667 HUF
Beneficiary 3: Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Local Government András Jósa Hospital
Project title: Setting up a regional diagnostics screening centre at the András Jósa hospital
Objective: setting up a regional diagnostics screening centre. The Centre will be implemented by reconstructing an existing building currently not in use, replacing out-of-date instruments and procuring new equipment.
Project description: the Centre to be established will aim to provide full, complex treatment for patients, which would be a unique service in the region. With the assistance of the screening bus, it will become possible to carry out cardiological ultrasound and lung screening in the most remote areas of the county among disadvantaged persons and social groups that are difficult to reach.
A Methodology Centre will also be set up within the framework of the project, which envisages processing the healthcare data of patients, which is currently not performed elsewhere in the country.
Rate of assistance: 1 221 499 460 HUF