Competition for staff – “24-hour care is about to collapse”

The health care system is collapsing and the warnings are getting louder and more urgent. There are no vacancies in the houses and everywhere there is a lack of required employees. Many leave the profession or emigrate to other countries with better working conditions and higher wages.

family members overwhelmed
But how should we care for our elderly and sick? This task is often left to the family members. Those who can afford it hire nurses. Ideally, these people can even be reached 24 hours a day. But of course that costs money. Therefore, in 2007, the state passed a legal framework for 24-hour care, including support.

But 2007 is a long time ago and since then the subject of care has changed rapidly – but the legal situation has not. Because the current price increases also have consequences for 24-hour care.

24-hour care is a bargain for the state
“Since 2007, the monthly subsidy of 550 euros decided by the federal government has not been increased or adjusted for inflation,” criticizes Helmut Lutz, director of Malteser Care, warning of a collapse of the system. Because 30,000 people in Austria have a nurse. When these cease to exist, the elderly and the sick would have to be housed in public or private institutions. But the places or the necessary employees are not there at all.

double promotion
“Moreover, such a place in a home is much more expensive for the state than support for home care. The health care supply report shows that in Vienna the annual government expenditure on hospital care is more than 33,000 euros,” explains Lutz. In comparison: “If the subsidy for nursing home workers were to be doubled to 1,100 euros per month, that would cost 13,200 euros,” Lutz calculates.

WKÖ association president Andreas Herz takes the same line: “Care in private households saves the public sector and thus the general public a lot of money.”

He and other experts are now arguing for this doubling. Now it’s politics.