In addition to hospital closures, shadow minister Ferencsány Gyurcsány would also eliminate vital departments in smaller institutions, such as obstetrics and traumatology. The next part of Origo's series of articles also reveals that, according to Zoltán Komáromi, it fits if a woman giving birth or a heart attack patient has to travel up to 50 kilometers to the hospital.

The left wing, under the leadership of Ferenc Gyurcsány, would continue the downsizing of the health sector where it was forced to stop due to the election defeat in 2010 - this is clear from the statements of the shadow minister of health, Klára Dobrev. In January of this year, Zoltán Komáromi spoke on ATV about the fact that obstetrics and traumatology will cease to exist in smaller hospitals everywhere in the world. "We have so few specialists, for example vascular surgeons, neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists who have expertise in special operations, and nurses, that if we do not collect them in, say, 10 or 15 centers in the country, then we cannot provide them from January 1 to December 31, so that if anyone has a stroke, or anyone has an acute occlusion of blood vessels, the intervention can be carried out so quickly that we can save, say, their leg or their life." When the presenter interjected that it was still true that obstetrics would cease to exist or traumatology would cease to exist in smaller hospitals, Komáromi replied: "everywhere in the world."

The shadow minister's claim that came out of thin air does not have much basis in reality, but it is a fact that millions of Hungarians would be put at a disadvantage with the steps cited above, worsening the country's health condition. It is known that Komáromi - one of Ferenc Gyurcsány's most loyal supporters - wrote Péter Márki-Zay's health program in preparation for the elections. It is no coincidence that last fall, the candidate for prime minister, who later failed miserably, spoke about his support for the centralization of healthcare institutions in outpatient care, that is, for only one of several institutions to remain and the rest to be abolished. He also said that he would close them en masse. including maternity and emergency departments.

Komáromi looks down on smaller hospitals

In the already mentioned ATV interview, Zoltán Komáromi also expressed a rather cynical opinion when he said that he thinks it is "appropriate" if women giving birth or heart attack patients have to travel 50 kilometers to the hospital. He explained that a maternity ward works well and it is safe to give birth there if five hundred births have been performed in that department in a year. "In a maternity home or a small hospital, where thirty births are performed in a year, and an unexpected complication occurs, and the nearest well-equipped hospital is fifty kilometers away, during that time, the life of the woman giving birth and the child are endangered," he said. the DK family doctor. To the host's question about whether the well-equipped hospital should be fifty kilometers away, but the woman giving birth should go there in the first place, Komáromi answered yes. He then continued: "In the case of a heart attack, if someone has chest pain two kilometers from a city hospital and a county center where they can do the coronary angiography right away, say, fifty kilometers away, and the ambulance takes them there immediately with a notification, and they wait there , they do it right away, then the chances of saving the heart muscle are much higher." According to Komáromi, on the other hand, in a city hospital, all that happens is that they take your data, do the EKG, they cannot carry out meaningful intervention.

Health care would be downgraded again

Gyurcsányék's shadow minister would therefore continue the policy before 2010, which also led to cuts in the health sector and the downsizing of the care system.

It should be remembered that the MSZP-SZDSZ coalition government brought the country to near bankruptcy in 2006, and they wanted to reduce the huge budget deficit by liquidating hospitals and merging institutions, among other austerity measures. Some hospital closures were prevented thanks to the protests of the then opposition - Fidesz-KDNP -, the profession and public opinion, but other institutions were not so lucky.

The Schöpf-Merei Ágost Hospital and Maternal Protection Center, the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology (Lipótmező) and the Svábhegy State Children's Hospital were closed, and Margit Hospital, Buda Children's Hospital and János Hospital were merged and downsized. In addition, the number of active beds was reduced in many hospitals, mergers and capacity reductions took place.

Source: origo.hu

Zoltán Komáromi in our opening picture. Photo: MTI/Zoltán Balogh