Amidst global pressure for health professionals to receive pay increases, especially in European countries like the UK, where doctors are planning a number of strikes, Hungary has implemented a 40 percent pay rise for doctors.
The government announced a pay rise of 40 percent for doctors and pharmacists over two years in an effort to stem the mass exodus of medical staff.
They will be paid between 50,000 and 107,000 HUF more per month and a similar amount from 2017.
Other staff in the central European country's public health sector will get 30,000 HUF or 25 percent more each month and will see their pay "double" by 2019.
Healthcare in Hungary has been under strain for years, in particular because many staff have left for Western Europe where they can earn much higher salaries.
However, the government has announced a significant budget increase for healthcare throughout Hungary in 2017.
Istvan Eger, president of Hungary's medical professionals association, called the pay rise agreement with the government "the result of lots of hard work, at the end of which all sides can be happy."