Last special meeting in the Vienna City Hall: FPÖ criticizes health emergency!

Last special meeting in the Vienna City Hall: FPÖ criticizes health emergency!

On April 17, 2025, the last special meeting of the city parliament took place in the current legislative period in the Vienna town hall. This session, which was called up by the FPÖ on the subject of health, was particularly used for the critical examination of the existing problems in the Vienna health system. Special meetings are a common means of the opposition to discuss specific topics; In this case, the question time and current hour were not included, which underlines the urgency of the concern. Unusually, the meetings come about shortly before the upcoming election, the early election in autumn led to these additional dates, while further meetings are planned in the next week.

The FPÖ boss Dominik Nepp expressed sharp criticism of health care in Vienna in his opening speech, which he described as a "broken pile". He complained about long waiting times, an acute shortage of doctors and overloaded hospital legacies as serious problems. In addition, Nepp demanded that Austrian citizens in the health sector should have priority. This had led to a violent debate among the MPs.

criticism and counter -arguments

Neos MP Dolores Bakos described the FPÖ's statements as populism and demanded constructive solutions. She advocated health services close to home and the expansion of the health hotline 1450. The green health spokeswoman Jennifer Kickert also pointed out long -term structural problems and recommended incentive models for less popular service times to counter the challenges.

Ingrid Korosec, health spokeswoman for the ÖVP, basically questioned the meaningfulness of the session. She called for reforms in the Vienna Health Association and a targeted improvement in the user experience in the health system. SPÖ MP Andrea Mautz, on the other hand, emphasized the ongoing nursing offensive and construction work for the modernization of the Vienna Clinics by 2030 and criticized the FPÖ for its earlier statements about the topic of patient billion.

background to health care in Austria

The challenges in the Vienna health system are not isolated, but are part of a larger framework that is shaped by the reforms in the health system of Austria. The Austrian health system was analyzed for the fourth time as part of the European Observatory for Health Systems, whereby the latest developments in organization, administration, financing and care were documented extensively. The reform with the new control system "target control health" is intended to strengthen the coordination between different levels of government and self-government organs. These reforms are central issues in the discussion about the future of health care in Austria and have been described in detail in the last reports.

The challenges with which the health system is confronted are not only noticeable in Vienna. According to information based on inquiries from four years ago, between 750 and 850 beds in Wigev hospitals were closed due to lack of personnel and financial restrictions. In addition, waiting times for almond operations of over a year and the fact that the Floridsdorf Clinic does not work in full operation despite the opening in 2016 that there is an urgent need for action.