Kabeg Supervisory Board – When politicians “play” health managers.

Since the corona pandemic, everyone should have known that politicians do not have the best knowledge of health management issues. At that time, political decision-makers preferred to rely on experts.

All the more astonishing is the composition of the new Supervisory Board of the operating company of the Carinthian State Hospital (Kabeg). Because of the fourteen commissioners, only three are doctors. Above all – and what seems logical – Secretary of Health Beate Prettner. The qualified doctor not only watches over the hospitals of Carinthia, but must also have a certain expertise due to her training. Anesthesiologist Gabriele Oberbichler-Kainz was subsequently promoted to the Supervisory Board through Kabeg’s Central Works Council. And then it gets political again.

Team Carinthia is the only political party that sends doctor Mischa Dorfer to the control and decision-making body. For the SPÖ, ÖVP and FPÖ, all representatives of the state parliament and political officials sit on the supervisory board. Uniform accountability: the expertise …

Liberal post post haggle
The appointment of the chairman of the supervisory board will probably surprise you the most. It is none other than Leo Murer, head of Governor Peter Kaiser’s cabinet. Of the red state parliament club, it is said, “Murer worked as Prettner’s office manager for many years and thus fits the bill.” A cause for anger for the opposition, of course: the Freedomists are once again looking for postal haggling.

Experts extremely critical
Although there is no €90 attendance fee for most Commissioners because they hold a political office, even health policy experts are highly critical of the influence of politics. After all, “a hospital supervisory board is involved in essential and leading decisions and should by no means become a political pawn”.