Guest Patients in Vienna's Hospitals: 420 Million Euro Additional Costs Due to Lower Austrians

Specifically, patients from Lower Austria caused costs in Vienna of around 720 million euros in 2022 according to the most recent figures reported to the liaison office of the federal states. If you subtract the costs for the treatment of Viennese in Lower Austria's hospitals (around 84 million), you get around 635 million euros, which makes up 79.8 percent of the offset costs for all guest patients. Vienna does receive more money in relation to the population through the fiscal equalisation than, for example, Lower Austria, but even after deducting this higher fund allocation and taking into account a proportional share of the investment costs, the additional costs for Lower Austrian patients in 2022 would have amounted to 420 million euros, complained Hacker's office.

Vienna's Health City Councillor Threatens Separate Waiting Lists

The Health City Councillor once again insisted on direct negotiations with Lower Austria and Burgenland. Despite his efforts, these are still not taking place. He expects proposals, Hacker said on Tuesday in the "Ö1" lunchtime journal. The separate waiting lists for guest patients that he recently considered are currently not a concrete project, Hacker said, "but if the federal states do not respond, we will deal with it in more detail". This would certainly not be about acute cases or special and special treatments, but about planable ordinary interventions, he emphasised.

Hacker's party colleague, the Burgenland governor Hans Peter Doskozil, saw his statements on Tuesday "relaxed" and referred on the sidelines of a press appointment in Eisenstadt to the upcoming state election in Vienna in April. Hacker would be "eyeing" the election, he said. He did not accept the accusation of refusing to talk, as there are "valid contracts" and the next time to discuss them is the fiscal equalisation, Doskozil emphasised.

The reaction from Lower Austria was similar: "For us, the negotiated contracts that were extensively discussed and decided within the framework of the fiscal equalisation apply. We will not shake this agreement," said the office of the state councillor Ludwig Schleritzko (ÖVP) responsible for the clinics. "We do not see ourselves as being in debt here and will not accept that the Vienna election campaign is being carried out on the backs of Lower Austrian patients."

(APA/Red.)

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