In general, there is a lack of well trained full-time palliative care experts in Hungary,⁶⁴ as described by Katalin Muszbek in 2004:

‘I have an excellent team of nurses, physicians – physicians are working part-time, this is the crucial point in any Hungarian hospice team, that’s it’s very difficult to get a physician who contributes completely to the hospice and we are suffering from this problem as well. But we have good part-time physicians so we have an excellent team.’⁶⁵

Yet in a later interview, Katalin Muszbek suggests that the recent health reforms may lead to an increase in the palliative care workforce:

‘Now there is a health reform in Hungary and now the government have decided to reduce the budget of the health care it means at the same time that until now there were few unemployed doctors but now there will be because active beds are reduced and maybe the interest towards our topic will increase and they may trickle in to palliative care by that method…I think that due to this health reform plenty of physicians will not find work, so maybe some of them will show an interest in our work and, so I am really optimistic so I think that in three years there will be at least twice as many services as there are now.’⁶⁶

In 2006, an estimated 1093 people were working in palliative care in Hungary, including 104 physicians; 524 nurses; 41 social workers; 57 psychologists and mental health experts; 79 physiotherapists; 40 dieticians; 44 coordinators; eleven occupational therapists; nine bereavement counsellors; four ambulance personnel; 40 spiritual counsellors or leaders and an estimated 140 volunteers.⁶⁷ The relative lack of volunteers may result from Hungary’s Socialist past, when voluntary structures were not supported and therefore did not exist. Another reason may be that the misuse of donated money by so-called charity organisations in post-socialist Hungary proves to be a hindrance for those organisations who wish to work on a voluntary basis.⁶⁸ Volunteer training courses comprise of 120 hours training, and volunteers tend to be mainly men, spanning a wide age range. Voluntary work averages approximately four hours per week.⁶⁹