Health-care professionals to receive further wage hikes, says official

Health-care professionals will continue to receive wage hikes this year, the government spokeswoman said in a video message on Thursday.

“Whereas we can never show enough gratitude to health workers, wage increases are one way of showing our appreciation,” Alexandra Szentkirályi said on Facebook. The base wage of nurses will be hiked twice this year and compensation payments for on-call shifts and overtime will also be increased, she said.

Due to gradual wage increases since 2016, a nurse in January 2022 will take home a wage two and a half times the level of four years ago, she added.

Further, 60 billion forints (EUR 180.2m) will be spent on building and upgrading nursing hostels.

The government is ploughing hundreds of billions of forints into the upgrade of health-care facilities and the purchase of medical equipment, Szentkirályi said.

It is now drafting a package of further measures aimed at upgrading waiting rooms, wards, bathrooms and community spaces in hospitals where improvements have not been carried out in the past three years.

Source: MTI