Healthcare crisis: medical profession calls for radical reforms!

Healthcare crisis: medical profession calls for radical reforms!

In Austria, the health system faces acute challenges. Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, chairman of the federal curia of the resident doctors, warned in her appeal to the government of a massive BudgetLoch in the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) of over 900 million euros for 2025. This leads to uncertainties not only for the patients, but also among the health insurance doctors who have to fight for the well-being of their patients while politics remains in action. As vienna.at reported, Kamalean-Schmied estimates in Vienna alone at one billion euros and even on five billion euros.

A central problem is the need to revise the performance and fee catalogs. Kamaleyan smith led the example of a patient with suspected thrombosis, whose treatment was not recorded in the old performance catalog. This must be sent to the hospital, which costs additional resources. At the same time, Harald Mayer, the chairman of the Federal Coury of Doctors, calls for a binding patient steering to control patient tourism, in the style of the Netherlands, where patients only come to hospital with transfer. He also criticized that without a functioning digital health information system such as the ELGA, medical care remains inefficient, such as bpb.de

growing pressure on the health system

The medical profession formulated five standards for health policy and emphasizes urgency to provide sufficient resources for the health insurance system and the public hospitals. They warn of the privatization of public health facilities and the associated trend towards commercialization that the solidarity community could undermine. Doctors such as Steinhart expressed the willingness to work with the government in order to tackle the acute problems in the health system and to secure solidarity financing.

The discussion about reform needs is essential to ensure the quality of medical care in Austria and to master the challenges that result from changing demography and increasing number of patient. The health system is on a crossroads, and urgent measures are necessary to make it future -proof.