Burgenland still awaits apology for Hungarian minister's comments about Austrian region's ambulances

Hungarian State Secretary for Health, Péter Takács made several statements over the summer about the quality of the ambulance services in neighbouring Austria's Burgenland region, which sparked heated reactions across the border. Following the region's governor, the head of the government coordination office, Robert Hergovich has now also refuted Takács's statements and has requested a public apology, claiming that Takács had given an inaccurate evaluation of the quality of the Austrian region’s ambulance service.

The Hungarian Ministry of Interior (healthcare falls under this ministry in Hungary – ed) reacted to this by claiming that the IT system of the Burgenland ambulance service does indeed require improvement.

According to Hungarian State Secretary for Health, Péter Takács, the emergency management system of the Burgenland ambulance service is less developed than that of the Hungarian National Ambulance Service, and needs to be upgraded so that cooperation with the Hungarians can run smoothly. Upon hearing this, the governor of Burgenland wrote an open letter last week asking PM Viktor Orbán to rectify the state secretary's statements.

It was over the weekend that the Austrian government's coordinator also challenged the Hungarian state secretary's statements. RTL published the statement, in which Robert Hergovich says that he expects an apology and a correction, considering that Burgenland has one of the best ambulance services in Europe.

“We expect an apology from the Prime Minister and, above all, we expect Mr. Orbán to amend this statement. This is both warranted and necessary,”

Hergovich said, stressing that cooperation between the two countries is important and should be based on mutual respect.

Hungary’s Ministry of Interior also sent an answer to RTL, stating that the Burgenland ambulance service's IT system is not compatible with the Hungarian ambulance service's system. Cooperation has already been established with the ambulance service of Lower Austria, but according to the ministry, additional IT developments are needed in Burgenland in order to enable future cooperation.

Meanwhile, it seems that an agreement has been reached after all, as 24.hu noticed that a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the cooperation between Austrian and Hungarian ambulance services was published in last Thursday's edition of the Hungarian Gazette.