BMJ  2005;331:231-233 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.231

Education and debate

Managing healthcare reform in Hungary: challenges and opportunities

Miklós K Szócska, acting director1, János M Réthelyi, visiting research fellow1, Charles Normand, Edward Kennedy professor of health economics2

1 Health Services Management Training Centre, Semmelweis University, 1125 Budapest, Kútvölgyi út 2, Hungary, 2 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Dublin Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Correspondence to: M K Szócska szocska@emk.sote.hu

The reform of healthcare services is a priority in transitional Hungary, but managing these changes is fraught with difficulties due to the political climate and managerial inexperience

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

The past 15 years in Hungary have been characterised by unique changes. Apart from democratisation and managing the immediate crises caused by the collapse of the economy in the early 1990s, a strong part of the reforms was a desire to build Western models of health care and the necessary social and economic infrastructure. Hungary was forced to start substantial reengineering of health services that requires a recognition of the interdependency between policy making and implementation and the management of change.1

Policy making and managing organisations are generally viewed as fundamentally different. Even a quick review of the reforms ongoing in Hungarian health care, however, challenges this perspective. Policy and management are highly interrelated and the management of change is critical to successful implementation of policy. We examined some of the factors that facilitate or limit change and recommend action for improving the management of these processes.

Policy development

To understand the . . . [Full text of this article]

Organisational change

Feasible change and reform


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