Emergency in the healthcare system: Long queues – what to do if there is a shortage of doctors?

Emergency in the healthcare system: Long queues – what to do if there is a shortage of doctors?

On January 8, 2025, the challenges in the health sector in Salzburg will become increasingly clear. Long queues in front of primary care centers and overcrowded hospital outpatient departments cause dissatisfaction among patients. Richard Barta, the board member of the Salzburg Medical Association, sees the current chaos not as a sign of a shortage of doctors, but as an urgent indication that an effective patient management system is necessary. He regrets that despite the goals formulated in the last healthcare reform, such as “digital before inpatient before outpatient”, this system has not yet been implemented ORF Salzburg reports.

The patient routing system, also known as PLS, originally comes from emergency and disaster medicine and is intended to quickly and clearly identify registered patients in a mass deployment. It enables efficient handling of injured people in critical situations, such as after a major accident or disaster. The system is known in Germany as the “injured appendage card” and is used to clearly identify and register patients. This information is crucial for effective healthcare delivery and coordination, as discussed in the article by DocCheck Flexikon is explained.

A crucial note for patients is that the hospital outpatient clinics are not responsible for sick notes. Of the approximately 55,000 people who visited a hospital outpatient clinic last year, many had only minor ailments or were seeking a sick note. This underlines the need to establish a functioning patient routing system to overcome the challenges in the queues.