Waiting times at Viennese health insurers have increased significantly in recent years in almost all disciplines. Waiting times are particularly long in child and adolescent psychiatry and neurology. This is evident from a study commissioned by the Vienna Medical Association, which was presented on Thursday. The Medical Association is therefore sounding the alarm and urgently calls for making the health insurance sector more attractive and better financed.
In the study by pollster Peter Hajek, a total of 850 statutory health insurance practices from various disciplines in Vienna were contacted via mystery calls – that is, secret test calls – between April 5 and May 6. This showed a huge deterioration compared to a similar study from 2012. In the field of child and adolescent psychiatry, waiting times are by far the longest, with an average waiting time of 90 days for an appointment. (The area was not specifically surveyed in 2012). In a neurological specialist practice this is 45 days (in 2012 this was 33 days).
Extreme increase in ophthalmologists
The waiting time has increased especially for ophthalmologists, where people wait an average of 44 days for an appointment (2012: 9) and for lung specialists 36 days (5). The waiting time for gynecologists has quadrupled (32/2012: 8). For dermatologists the waiting period is 28 days (7), for radiologists 57 days (32) and for internists 33 days (12). The waiting times have remained virtually the same compared to 2012 in orthopedics (7/2012: 8) and in psychiatric practice (37/36).
The fact that no new patients are accepted at all is especially common in pediatric practices: more than half (54 percent) of statutory health insurance practices have an admission stop. In child and adolescent psychiatry, 40 percent are not accepting new patients, while this is almost a third (30 percent) among gynecologists. About a third of general practices are also busy.
Boss of the Medical Association: “Frightening results”
Medical Association President Johannes Steinhart described the “shocking” results of the study as a result of the neglect of the private health insurance sector. The public health system is at enormous risk, he warned at the press conference. While the population of the federal capital has grown by 16 percent since 2012, the number of statutory health insurers has fallen by 12 percent in the same time, lamented the chairman of the local doctors of the Vienna Medical Association, Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied. She claimed the long-promised ‘patient billion’ for Vienna alone.
“It’s 5 to 12,” Kamaleyan-Schmied warned toward politics. In view of the elections for the National Council, the medical association placed its demands in a symbolic emergency package under the motto “Let’s go”. The doctors want, among other things, an extension of the starting bonus for all outstanding health insurance positions, support with the start-up process, more flexibility, for example in the form of partial health insurance contracts, and the inclusion of health and social insurance. professions in individual practices, a reduction in bureaucracy and better fees.
The Medical Association has little appreciation for the SPÖ’s idea to oblige elective doctors to treat patients according to the health insurance rate if there is no specialist available for them in the public healthcare system. Instead of pressure and threats, working conditions must be made so attractive that young people are involved in the system, according to the chairman of the Medical Association.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
