Our members Egészségügyi Gazdasági Vezetõk Egyesülete (EGVE)

The Hungarian Association of Hospital Managers

The Professional Association of Hospital Managers (Egészségügyi Gazdasági Vezetök Egyesülete – EGVE) was founded just before the political change in Hungary. The foundation of the association was initiated by a group of colleagues, who had some experience from the “east”, and supported by some prominent leaders of the former Ministry of Health. The association is widely free of politics, dealing exclusively with health policy.

The statutory duties of the association are:

• Professional representation of the interests of Hungarian hospital managers;
• Appraisal of legal rules;
• Participation in Court;
• Collection and manipulation of data;
• Education;
• Organisation of conferences and exhibitions; and
• Networking (public relations) with national and international partner organisations.

Our association was able to quickly develop the contact with the European Association of Hospital Managers, especially thanks to the “diplomat” of our association, Erwin Kövesi, first chairman György Tarján and Dr. Lajos Ari.
After successful cooperation with our Austrian and German colleagues, we were able to introduce ourselves to the Executive Board and committee at the General Assembly of the European Association in Iceland.
Thanks to the generous support of the then president, Theo van Zanden, a great and true European, our association was accepted as a full member of the European association.
Due to socio-economic upheavals in the past 20 years we were obliged to reorganise our association to support the newly structured Hungarian healthcare system. This is as well what our members, more than 400 people, expect from us.
The activities of the association now focus more on our members, and we have set up seven regional organisations to which the management has been decentralised. Our trade journal, “MedizinÖkonomische Rundschau” (The Medical and Financial Journal), has been in existence for more than 40 years now and to keep our members informed we also publish a newsletter six times per year.
Another way of reorganisation is the closer integration with the social care system and the integration of both technical professionals working in the healthcare sector and of our young colleagues.
Aside from these recent developments and process of reorganisation within the association, two aspects have remained constant: We keep our policy of remaining free from politics and we are still active in organising conferences. This year, we will arrange the Hungarian Health Day for the 18th time, one of the biggest interdisciplinary events – if not the biggest – in Hungary that is connected to a large-scale exhibition.