Vienna relies on modern health: new surgical center and CO2 reduction!

Vienna relies on modern health: new surgical center and CO2 reduction!

On April 23, 2025, a meeting of the Vienna municipal council took place, in which several important topics were discussed, in particular health care in the city. GR Dr. Michael Gorlitzer (ÖVP) asked Health City Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) questions about a planned external surgical center. Hacker explained that many surgical interventions, especially in the areas of gynecology and urology, can be carried out without inpatient stay. Such interventions are already common practice in dentistry, and now an adaptation must also be made in other specialist areas. However, Vienna has so far not received the Federal Government's approval for new forms of care, although there is agreement between the federal states. In order to examine the possibility and integration of an operating room, the city has commissioned a feasibility study, the results of which are to be presented to the local council, according to wien.gv.at.

Another focus of the session was on climate policy. GR Dr. Sascha Obrecht (SPÖ) turned to climate city council Jürgen Czernohorszky and addressed the goals for sustainable energy supply. Czernohorszky emphasized the city's ambition to reach climate neutrality by 2040. Vienna lowered the energy consumption from 2005 to 2023 by 33.7 percent per capita, which is twice as high as the federal average. In this context, Czernohorszky also emphasized the “Raus out of gas” and the Smart City strategy.

Health care in focus

Health care remains a central concern of the Vienna city government since 2020. The government monitor of the SPÖ-NEOS coalition shows progress in the implementation of various projects. Particularly noteworthy is the plan to create 36 primary care centers (PVZ) and 16 specialized medical centers. There are currently 31 primary care centers in Vienna, of which 10 specialize for children. These developments underline the focus on innovative range of services, as well as meinzimzirk.at reports.

The city has also decided to introduce primary care outpatients (EVA) in hospitals to optimize patient steering. These outpatient clinics offer low -threshold health care seven days a week with the support of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK).

Investments in the future

Mayor Michael Ludwig underlined the need for first -class medical care in Vienna. A billion -dollar modernization program aims to sustainably improve the medical care and the training of specialists. By 2030, up to 3.3 billion euros have been planned for the modernization of the public clinics, which also includes new buildings in regions such as favorites, Hietzing and Ottakring. This project is part of the overarching hospital concept 2030, which is intended to ensure the concentration of clinic locations and the quality of the medical services, such as wien.gv.at.

In addition, Vienna plans the training of 16,000 new nurses by 2030 in order to meet the growing need in health care. This aspect is supplemented by a holistic health policy that also takes a look at factors such as living environment and prevention.

The current political discussion is also accompanied by critical voices. Strominik Nepp (FPÖ) expressed concerns about economic policy, especially with regard to rising bankruptcies in Vienna, which rose to 2,705 cases in 2024. This emphasizes the challenges with which both entrepreneurs and employees are confronted.