Steinhart quantified this at two to three billion: "The system is lagging significantly behind."

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, deputy chairman of the federal committee of general practitioners, went even further. She estimates a need of one billion for Vienna alone, and nationwide the requirement is five billion, as she emphasized. The Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) is "heavily in deficit" with a budget gap of over 900 million euros for 2025. This uncertainty is felt not only by patients but also by general practitioners. "And no one in politics feels compelled to change anything. Health interests no one."

Furthermore, the service and fee catalogs must be revised as soon as possible. Sometimes, the provision of services simply fails because treatments are not included in the old service catalogs, explained Kamaleyan-Schmied. She cited a patient suspected of having thrombosis as an example. Because the rapid test for this, which takes ten minutes and can be performed in the practice, is not included in the service catalog, she has to send the patient to the hospital. This costs considerable resources, including patient transport and hospital examination. There are discussions, but no money, said the doctor. Additionally, each player in the healthcare system only thinks about their own area.

"Proliferation of Patient Tourism"

Another demand is for binding patient management, as emphasized by the chairman of the federal committee of employed doctors, Harald Mayer: "We need to get the proliferation of patient tourism under control." He cited the Netherlands as a model, where no patient goes to the hospital without a referral from a general practitioner. Mayer also advised the new government to break up federalism. Often, it is sufficient to offer specialized and cost-intensive top medicine at one or two locations in Austria, rather than in all nine federal states.

Another concern of the medical profession is that the electronic health record ELGA is "brought to life," said Mayer. If the health pyramid is to lead from digital to general practitioners to outpatient clinics and only then to hospitals, a reasonable digital information system is needed alongside binding patient management. It should not be the case that the treating doctor cannot access the anamnesis collected at the health hotline 1450.

Medical Association with "Willingness to Talk and Cooperate"

Steinhart emphasized the "willingness to talk and cooperate" of the Medical Association: "We stand by the government with our experience and expertise." At the same time, he formulated five criteria by which the health policy of the coming years will be judged. In addition to adapting health data to the growing demand, sufficient resources are needed for the general practitioner system and public hospitals, said Steinhart: "It is important that we secure the solidarity-based financing of the healthcare system." The sale of public health facilities to private, profit-oriented investors must be prevented. Additionally, there needs to be a reduction in bureaucracy and an improvement in the working conditions of medical practice. Austria cannot afford to lose doctors to foreign countries.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.