Budapest hospitals face internal crisis as city adds 20 emergency beds

Karácsony Gergely reported that the city’s homeless hospital will add more than 20 beds to help address a worsening situation in Budapest's internal medicine departments. The Health Ministry, together with the Országos Kórházi Főigazgatóság and the Szociális és Családügyi Minisztérium, is aligning hospital cooperation to smooth patient care. While daily hospital loads have not markedly increased, chronic patients fill roughly one-third of beds and a chronic nursing shortage hampers full utilization.

Minister Hegedűs Zsolt attributed the difficulties to long-standing staff deficits rather than sudden spikes in demand. Officials met with representatives from hospitals, the national ambulance service and social ministries to map capacity and coordinate unused resources, while urging patients to first contact their family doctors or use the 1830 medical hotline outside office hours.