Parliament on Monday approved an amendment stipulating the that the assets and debt of 70 hospitals in Hungary be transferred to the central government from local councils.

The date for the transfer of the assets is May 1. The takeover of debt will take effect on July 31 and will affect that part of the institutions’ debt outstanding on May 1 which is specifically related to the assets transferred to the central government.

All hospitals taken over will be operated by the central government.

The central government will take over the ownership rights together with the assets and debt in the case of 54 of the 70 hospitals. The central government already had acquired the ownership rights of seven municipality-owned hospitals in January 2012. The current amendment stipulates for the takeover of the assets/debt of these seven institutions too.

The local councils will continue to possess ownership rights over the remaining nine of the seventy hospitals while their tasks, assets and related debt will be transferred to the central government.