After 1945, the hospital care system had to be rebuilt and substantially expanded, as the health
insurance system was being extended. The paper examines the extent to which the targets set
during the second and third five-year plans were achieved, how the availability of hospital beds
differed between Budapest and rural areas, and what characterized the geographical distribution
of hospital beds. These questions are addressed using a comparative approach (by comparing the
planned objectives with their actual outcomes) and cartographic methods. The objectives of the
plan ending in 1965 were largely achieved, though the construction of new hospitals was the area
in which the targets were least successfully met. However, in the third five-year plan ending in
1970, there were shortfalls in almost every area. The ratio of general hospital beds between Budapest
and rural areas decreased from three-to-one to two-to-one, although the significance of this
change is context-dependent. Furthermore, mapping hospitals and bed numbers revealed which
areas were experiencing bed shortages.