The most recent inspection by the Ministry of the Interior found several deficiencies in the GP surgeries. In 39 percent of cases, the family doctor was not even found in his office, and several family doctors were not available by phone, Népszava wrote based on the ministry’s data.
Péter Takács, the state secretary responsible for health, established the so-called Control Inspection Service last year, whose task is to coordinate the inspections of the specialized health authorities (NEAK, OKFŐ, NNGYK) and uncover errors in patient care.
In February and March last year, 569 family doctor and dentist services were inspected in Győr-Moson-Sopron, Vas, Tolna and Baranya counties. The investigations mainly took place in districts where medical businesses had more than one registered location. Then, in March 2023, another 11 providers providing general practitioner care were visited in the regions of Northern Hungary, Western Transdanubia and Southern Transdanubia.
The inspectors who arrived unexpectedly revealed several deficiencies: in several cases, orders were not processed during the period reported to the authority, and in some cases there was no dispensary at the address included in the operating license. The audit also found that three-quarters of the GP services only posted the appointment times in a clearly visible place.
After the experience of the first inspection, NEAK decided to conduct a follow-up inspection of those service providers operating three or four locations where serious deficiencies were found. During this process, 12 percent of the examined clinics were still not found at the address named as the place of medical care. It also happened that substitutes in vacant districts did not treat patients in the substituted practice, but in their own surgery, where the patients were transported by municipal minibuses. The inspectors of NEAK objected in several places that the skilled workers registered for the full eight-hour working time were only at their workplace for four hours of the order time.
The Ministry of the Interior announced that the operating licenses of the non-functional locations were revoked. Based on experience, the ministry considers further inspection of general practitioners to be justified. According to the information of Népszava, the family doctor services in Heves will be inspected in April, those in Vasi in August and September, and those in Tolna in October, and the inspectors plan to visit practices with more than a thousand people.
