In the future, people without a main residence in Vienna will be referred to their home states if they do not need acute care in a hospital in the federal capital. However, this could be “not legally compliant”, said the Lower Austrian patient advocate Gerald Bachinger.
The chairwoman of the Austrian patient and nursing attorneys, Michaela Wlattnig, also considers the measure to be an “unsuitable means” to relieve the Viennese hospitals. So they would first have to check whether there was an emergency, she said to the daily newspaper “Der Standard”. Doctors should do that first and foremost. The Lower Austrian patient advocate Gerald Bachinger again argued in the daily newspaper “Der Presse” with the Federal Hospitals Act (KAG). From this it emerges “that all socially insured patients are to be accepted into institutional care if they are in need of institutional care – of course not only in the case of patients who cannot be turned away.” he said to the “press”. The Ministry of Social Affairs has already confirmed this. In addition, Vienna’s hospitals would receive more funds than the city would be entitled to based on the population. This money is intended for national care. As reported, the Vienna Health Association recently wrote to the directors of the Vienna hospitals that people without a main residence should only be treated in Vienna in exceptional cases. This includes acute care or treatments that are only offered in the federal capital. The reasons are the precarious situation in individual departments and the long waiting lists for operations and examinations due to the acute shortage of doctors. Specifically, this could mean that a tourist who breaks his or her foot in Vienna is sent away because it is not necessarily a medical emergency. If the directive is carried out, the controversial example could set a precedent. Alternative: combat the shortage of doctors Wlattning proposed databases as an alternative measure in the “Standard” in order to be able to direct patients to where hospitals have free capacities, if possible also across the borders of the federal states. In addition, more wages are needed for hospital staff and more reliable rosters.
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