The new government inaugurated in 2006, started a most comprehensive professional and territorial restructuring of the hospital network in the recent decades. While performing it, the health administration took in account also the considerable re-allocation of the domestic medical workforce. The joint mobility program launched by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour supported doctors and nurses changing their habitation provided they had lost their working place by reorganisations. The obvious failure of this program indicated very clearly the lack of mobility of involved physicians (only 24 physicians and 11 nurses applied to be supported). The present study based on data of registered specialists in December 2009 analyses the graduate training and professional mobility patterns of surgeons and gynaecologist-obstetricians born in Hungary and abroad as well. Among surgeons (N=1469) there is 13.5% and among gynaecologist-obstetricians (N=1377) 10.6% the proportion of those born abroad. Results obtained show a very strong adherence of domestic professionals to the regional community, however this adherence exists parallel with the cross-national migration of the same workforce both indicating the essential role of immigrant specialists while providing health care in this country.

Specialists' birthplace and practice location Impact of medical school location Regional pattern of mobility Significance of immigration

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