The major umbrella, national organisation within Hungary is the Hungarian Hospice Palliative Association. Founded in 1995 by the National Association of Cancer Patients and 19 hospice organizations, it supports the development of palliative care through inviting applications from organizations that provide (or intend to provide) hospice care, and from individuals who wish to offer support. In 2007, there are 49 member associations of the Hungarian Hospice Palliative Association. It represents the interests of members in a variety of forms - including discussions with the Ministry of Health. Agnes Ruzsa recalls the formation of the association:

‘…we had to organise an association for the hospice teams and for the cancer patient, and in 1995 we and the other hospice teams, the 12 hospice teams decided to organise this association, the Hungarian Hospice Palliative Association which was working together. At this time the goals were first to ask for more pain control – to ask the government and the financial supporters for accreditation and minimum standards and so on.’³⁷

The Association became affiliated to the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) in 1999 and is supported by The Open Society Institute, New York. The Association is involved in a broad range of activities. In addition to monitoring the progress and development of hospice organizations, it disseminates information to its members from the EAPC. Topics of interest are included in the Association’s annual conferences, in its quarterly newsletters, and in a series of publications entitled Hospice Patient Care. The Association encourages quality of life research and represents the interests of hospice within the national health care system. In 2002, the Hungarian Hospice-Palliative Association (with the support of the Soros Foundation) produced the document Palliative Care of Terminally Ill Cancer Patients Professional guidelines: 2nd improved and extended edition.³⁸ The 6th Congress of the Hungarian Hospice-Palliative Association (with the participation of the leaders of the EAPC, organised by the Elizabeth Hospice Foundation) was held on 23rd-24th April 2004, Miskolc, Hungary.

Hungary was a signatory to the Poznan Declaration (1998) and is a member of the Eastern and Central European Palliative Care Task Force (ECEPT). Its palliative care leaders subscribe, therefore, to the call for national policies, palliative care education, increased drug availability, a growth in palliative care services and an increase in public awareness. Hungary was represented on the Council of Europe’s (2000) committee of experts on the organisation of palliative care by Katalin Hegedus. A hospice and palliative care research group is associated with the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University of Medicine.

A number of international collaborations have been established. Erzsébet Hospice, Miskolc, has developed links with Casa Sperantei (Romania) and Sir Michael Sobell House (UK). Bethesda Children’s Hospital, Budapest, has worked closely with Warsaw Hospice for Children; in 1999 these two hospices engaged in a partnership to organise the first paediatric palliative care conference for physicians in Eastern Europe, held in Budapest. Seventy- five representatives attended from 19 European and three non-European countries (Argentina, Australia, and Canada). A similar collaboration contributed to the second conference, held in Warsaw in 2001.³⁹ Budapest Hospice House has twinning arrangements with hospices in Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey, Romania, and Georgia. It had a five year (2002-2007) twinning arrangement with a hospice in Krakow through an EU/PHARE grant, and enjoys a twinning arrangement with Sir Michael Sobell House, Oxford (UK), and Buffalo Hospice, New York.⁴⁰