Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change servers in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7125 Volume 316 News Saturday 10 January 1998 Doctor's hunger strike fails to win funds The cardiac surgery department of a county hospital in western Hungary remains in financial difficulties despite a week long hunger strike by an eminent heart surgeon last month. Dr Lajos Papp, professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Pécs, abandoned his hunger strike only after learning that some of his patients planned to take similar action and that the welfare ministry might provide additional funds for his department. Dr Papp was instrumental in establishing the cardiac surgery department at Zala County Hospital in Zalaegerszeg, where budget cuts had halted all but emergency heart surgery since 17 November. After the Hungarian media picked up on the story, the welfare minister, Mihály Kökény, appeared on television promising that funds to permit the resumption of cardiac surgery at the hospital would be forthcoming. The National Health Fund, however, denied that the hospital would get any money before its budget allocation in January. At the time, 12 patients had been scheduled for surgery and 18 others were on a waiting list. One of the political parties, the Hungarian Democrat Forum, donated five million Hungarian forints (£15,832) to the hospital, enabling the scheduled operations to take place. Zala County Hospital is one of seven centres in Hungary where open heart surgery is performed. The others are five universities and the National Cardiological Institute in Budapest. All these have "much bigger budgets" than the county hospital, said Dr Gábor Kecskés, a member of the cardiology staff at Zala County Hospital. The decision to suspend heart surgery at the hospital was necessary to avert a financial crisis and possible bankruptcy, said László Varga, president of the county assembly, which administers state funding at the cardiac unit. He said that doctors there had carried out more operations than planned for the financial year 1997, thus exceeding its budget. Doctors at Zala County Hospital performed more than 430 cardiac operations in 1997, compared with 273 the previous year and 265 in 1995. Zala County Hospital's troubles reflect the financial ills plaguing Hungary's healthcare system as a whole. An internal report by the State Audit Office last September blamed mismanagement and confusion at the National Health Fund and welfare ministry for the health fund's deficit of 43.5bn forints in 1996 and predicted that the aftershock will be felt for years to come. "Our opinion is that the healthcare system will not be able to survive the shocks of 1996 without permanent damage," the report stated. Carl Kovac Agota Hajnal, Budapest Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline