In February, the government will gradually start the reorganization of new emergency out-of-hours services. First in one Eastern county (Hajdú-Bihar), followed by another, Western county (Győr-Sopron) in March.
According to the measure adopted in December 2022, the responsibility for the provision of out-of-hours services is taken away from local governments and given to the National Emergency Ambulance Service (OMSz). The new system divides the out-of-hours period into two:
- Between 4 pm to 10 pm, there will be family doctors available in the districts of a county.
- Between 10 pm to 8 am and during the weekend, there will be district emergency centres staffed with highly qualified paramedical workers, managed by the OMSz. Patients can either call a new four-digit telephone number, where a trained health worker from the OMSz performs a telephone triage, or directly call the dedicated OMSz number in case of life-threatening emergencies.
The number of out-of-hours service points in the country will be reduced to 108. The new system is gradually implemented, since family doctors and the Hungarian Medical Chamber show significant resistance on the grounds of patient safety.