Why do Doctors Leave – and What Would Make Them Stay?

The migration of medical doctors is an important policy issue in the healthcare sector, which is closely linked with the more general anomalies of the Hungarian healthcare system and the problem of the shortage of medical staff. However, the international migration of medical doctors is not something new, nor is it something specifically Hungarian. The widening of the scope of tasks and possibilities of medicine and the demographic trends generate increasing demand for medical doctors in the developed world and lead to their increasing migration. Measuring the more and more important phenomenon of the migration of medical doctors is not simple, so it is often replaced by asking doctors about their intention to migrate, which is easier to measure. The data collection in the present research looked at the actual size of the migration of doctors, as well as its motivating factors, the drives ant the impediments of migration of medical doctors in Hungary, The research covered Hungarian doctors currently working abroad and those who have spent a period of time abroad but have returned, having gained experience in migration and those without emigration experience. The first part of the article discusses the scope of doctors’ migration, the professional and age makeup of the doctors working abroad and the dynamics of migration. The second part of the article explores the question what factors influence the decision of Hungarian doctors to work abroad and their expectations concerning working outside Hungary. Model calculations examined how the various aspects of living and working conditions affected the probability and the patterns of working abroad. Compared with our expectations, higher salaries in themselves are not sufficient to motivate migration decisions and raising doctors’ salaries is not enough to stop the migration trend either. The intensity of the emigration of medical doctors and their expectations concerning future decisions predict the prevalence of the emigration of young doctors. This can be identified as the most serious problem of the emigration of medical doctors from Hungary.*

Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: C83, I10, I20, J40, J60, J61