Local services
The draft budget of Debrecen for 2025 has been completed, with the aspects affecting care policy presented by Deputy Mayor Diána Széles on February 21, 2025, at the family doctor’s office located at 45 Thomas Mann Street, which is currently under renovation.
The choice of location was not a coincidence, as the Deputy Mayor wanted to symbolise the municipality’s caring policy of looking after all the city’s citizens. Working on behalf of the city’s residents is an ongoing daily activity.
The building complex that includes the doctor’s office also symbolizes the infrastructure of care, as there is a club for the elderly and a retirement home – the latter currently offering apartments through Cívis Ház Zrt. In recent years, the municipality has renovated 15 family doctor’s offices. The renovation at 45 Thomas Mann Street is underway, and the one in Nagymacs will be completed this year – both with municipal resources. The city also expects European Union support to renovate several offices to make them more accessible.
Deputy Mayor Diána Széles emphasized that all municipal institutions – including social and primary health care institutions – aim to serve the people of Debrecen and build a community. From birth to old age – from the first day to as long as possible – Debrecen strives to care for each of its citizens in some form. Perhaps the first element of this process is the Breast Milk Collection Station, where fresh breast milk is available for babies in need. The municipality supports the station’s operation with HUF 10 million annually. This may seem small, but breast milk gives life and strength. The first institutional system related to young children is the nurseries, which perform exemplary professional work nationwide and continuously renew and expand their infrastructure.
With 14 member institutions providing care for over 1,300 children by more than 400 employees, the nursery system will receive HUF 3.8 billion for maintenance this year.
Next, 33 kindergartens with 48 locations care for more than 6,800 children – the maintenance of which requires HUF 9 billion from the city’s budget. The municipality no longer maintains elementary schools, but providing school health care is the municipality’s responsibility, in close cooperation with the Institute of Primary Care and Health Promotion Debrecen (Deafi(Daefi), part of the University of Debrecen. The uniqueness of Debrecen’s school health care is that the Daefi Pósa Street Center provides complex health services, significantly more comprehensive than the mandatory and government-funded ones, with municipal support – from screenings to engaging, community-building health education programs.
Diána Széles highlighted that Debrecen is the only city in the country providing ECG screening for children. This has successfully identified WPW syndrome, a potentially fatal rhythm disorder, in 17 children so far. Thanks to the early discovery of this issue, these children can now live safely. Additionally, 78 children were found to have other cardiac problems due to the ECG screening.
“There is no other city in the country that spends this much money to ensure the safety of its citizens’ children,” Diána Széles said, adding that the municipality also provides public catering, costing HUF 1.1 billion annually from the city’s budget.
Under the “Move, Debrecen!” movement’s school program – in collaboration with the Debrecen District Center, the Debrecen Vocational Training Center, and church school maintainers – 1,200 non-registered athlete children in 40 schools participate in extracurricular activities improving movement coordination weekly. Within the school program, the “1 Minute for Health” initiative was launched in elementary schools to prevent spinal problems in first-graders – later second-graders – with short exercise routines that can be performed even during lessons. The “Plate Adventure” program supports preventing weight problems and promoting health-conscious eating among lower primary school students. These activities occur at the Health Development Center at 11 Szent Anna Street. According to the Deputy Mayor, supporting these goals is worth it for the health of future generations.
The “Move, Debrecen!” movement primarily targets adults, as a survey conducted before preparing the city’s health plan revealed that two-thirds of Debrecen residents do not exercise regularly. Therefore, the municipality has taken on the mission of providing free opportunities for those who still want to exercise. Over the past three years, over 163,000 people have participated in thousands of programs under the “Move, Debrecen!” movement. At the Health Development Center at 11 Szent Anna Street, which opened in the autumn of 2023 and was supported by Unicef, more than 2,800 Debrecen residents participated in free health screenings within a year and a half. “Although these are ‘just’ numbers, behind them are life paths that have become healthier, possibly changed by nutritional advice alone. That is why it is worth supporting these programs,” the deputy mayor emphasized.
Diána Széles stated that the operating costs of Debrecen’s caring city program and social institution system, including nurseries, kindergartens, Daefi, the City Social Service, and the Family and Child Welfare Center, will amount to HUF 18.5 billion this year. This is a considerable amount, even though not all such activities and institutions are maintained by the municipality.
The Municipality of Debrecen has decided to take on additional support forms deemed particularly important for the people of Debrecen, allocating nearly HUF 300 million this year. The municipality regularly supports the Debrecen Charity Board’s activities, which aid those in need in areas outside of official procedures, often in immediate crises. Businesses also support the Debrecen Charity Board, demonstrating the city’s community strength and solidarity. “This cooperation is the strength and value of Debrecen’s social system,” she pointed out.
The Deputy Mayor discussed elderly care. Among the planned institutional investments in this area, she highlighted the continued phased renovation of the elderly home on Pallagi Road, with HUF 60 million available for development this year.
There are many actors in the social sector – civil, state, church, and municipal. Diána Széles particularly emphasized a new initiative whereby – in addition to the currently operating municipal social care service – the municipality aims to provide home help, combined with catering and mental support, exclusively in the outer city areas (e.g., Pac, Biczó István Garden, Bayk András Garden, Kismacs, Nagymacs, Ondód) in collaboration with an external provider. This includes shopping, medication delivery, cleaning, ironing, and washing up. The related proposal will be submitted to the city council in March, and the service is expected to start this summer, reaching 500 people.
In terms of elderly support, a significant item in the city’s budget is the waste management service fee support for those who have reached the age of 70, totalling HUF 152 million. Free use of the Nagyerdei Thermal Bath or the Kerekestelep Pool is also widespread among those over 65—the city allocated a total of HUF 51 million for this support this year.
As Diána Széles mentioned earlier, the city strives to supplement government support. Thus, the municipality wants all elderly people in Debrecen to participate in the “Caring Hour” program, which has been requested by more than 750,000 people nationwide and has already proven life-saving in 40,000 cases. They will promote this free service among the elderly.
The Deputy Mayor recommended the website https://gondoskodovaros.hu/ to those interested in opportunities and services within the city’s care policy.
Diána Széles stated that the city’s municipality wants as many residents as possible to feel good, healthy, and happy at every stage of life. This is the aim of Debrecen’s care policy.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
