The Hungarian government has provided 1.3 billion forints (EUR 3.3m) to finance repairs to hospitals’ air conditioning systems.
Péter Takács, the state secretary in charge of health services, told public media that in the recent heat wave four hospitals, out of a total of 81, had to reschedule operations. He added that “there have been minor problems [with air conditioning] everywhere but no urgent case was left unattended.” “Hospitals were able to resolve their problems through reorganising their services,” he said. In view of heat waves occurring more frequently, the government started modernising the air conditioning systems in hospitals three years ago, having spent over 10 billion forints to that end so far, Takács said, adding that 14 major hospitals across the country now had completely new systems. On another subject, Takács noted that health ministers of the European Union would meet in Budapest on Wednesday and Thursday. The agenda of their meeting will focus on making healthcare services resistant to the impacts of climate change, he said.