Mandatory Chamber Membership Scrapped for Doctors in Hungary

  • 1 Mar 2023 6:46 AM
  • Hungary Matters
Mandatory Chamber Membership Scrapped for Doctors in Hungary
Parliament passed a law scrapping doctors’ mandatory membership in the Hungarian Medical Chamber (MOK).

Parliament adopted the law with 122 votes in favour, 31 against and no abstentions.

The fast-tracked bill, which the interior ministry submitted on Monday, aimed at eliminating opportunities for MOK to “abuse its powers”, while also abolishing mandatory chamber membership for doctors, the ministry said in a statement earlier this week.

Péter Takács, the state secretary for health care, said in Parliament on Tuesday that the measure was taken to ensure “high quality, safe health care accessible to all”.

MOK was hobbling the introduction of a new on-call system, and so “putting the health care of Hungarians at risk”, he said.

Ongoing code of ethics procedures against members of the chamber will be transferred to the Health Science Council, with the chamber retaining the right to give its opinion on procedures.

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