Medical association starts large campaign: we strengthen your health!

Medical association starts large campaign: we strengthen your health!

The Austrian Medical Association (ÖÄK) has launched a new information campaign that aims to highlight the services and competence of the doctors in Austria. The campaign is intended to honor the commitment of the doctors in the health system and will be presented on September 16, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in a press conference. This takes place in the Press Club Concordia in Vienna, and OMR Dr. Johannes Steinhart, the president of the Öäk, will be present. Media representatives are invited to pressestelle@aerztamme.at to register to take part in this event, how ots.at reported.

The information campaign has the title: "My health begins with my doctor, with my doctor. And nowhere else". ÖäK President Johannes Steinhart announced that the campaign should serve to offer people "calming and security". It will extend over various channels, including spots on ORF before the program "State today", newspaper advertisements and contributions on social media, so vienna.at.

Appreciation for resident doctors

A central concern of the ÖÄK is to illustrate the daily commitment of the resident doctors who treat around 400,000 people every day and carry out important preventive examinations. This was also emphasized by Edgar Wutscher's statement, the Vice President of the ÖÄK, that noted that doctors in politics and social security often do not receive the recognition and appreciation they deserve. According to a survey by Statistics Austria, 90 percent of Austrians are satisfied with their general practitioners and specialists.

In addition, Wutscher expressed his concern about the problem of dealing with the system partners with the medical association and criticized the spread of false numbers, as well as the defamation of election doctors. This raises the question of how young doctors should be motivated to enter the cash register system. Currently, communication between medical profession and system partners is mainly via letters, which Wutscher considers insufficient and demands a return to direct communication.

Criticism of the health system

In the context of the campaign, general satisfaction with the health system was also addressed. President Steinhart reported on a Spectra survey that shows that 42 percent of the respondents rate the health system as "mediocre" to "very bad". This represents a significant increase compared to 28 percent in 2021. The main problems in the public sector, long waiting times for treatment and surgical appointments and the trend towards two-class medicine were identified as the main problems.

The medical profession has already made proposals for improvement, including better training of doctors through suitable personnel resources, the introduction of a uniform and modern performance catalog as well as flexible cash contracts. Steinhart emphasizes the willingness of the medical profession to actively work on solutions to improve health care in Austria, while almost 80 percent of those surveyed demand improvements in the health system.