Primar announced – emergency solution for baby station as a last resort

Some premature babies cared for in the neonatology department of the Donaustadt clinic weigh only 400 grams. Twelve beds are available for babies born from the 24th week of pregnancy. Youth work Herbert Kurz, himself a neonatologist, heads the pediatric ward. “It’s great work that makes sense and is fun,” he emphasizes.

Only three instead of seven doctors
Yet it is a scarce subject. And that was already noticeable in the clinic in Floridsdorf. Because, as reported, the pediatricians there climbed the barricades because they had to take over the tasks of the neonatologists, who have had three years of training. “But we didn’t even have a crash course,” said pediatrician and department chair of the doctors on duty, George Zabaneh.

Now even the primary resigned, the first senior doctor gave up her duties. As of February, there are only three doctors in the pediatric ward instead of seven.

You have to see how exactly
The Vienna Health Association has therefore come up with a solution: The pediatric ward, including the neonatology department, will remain at the Floridsdorf site, but will be cared for by a team of doctors led by Primar Kurz. “You just have to see what it is exactly,” he says. It would be conceivable to have a permanent team per clinic and doctors who are sometimes there and sometimes there. “Of course the model is based on a voluntary basis,” emphasizes Kurz.

According to the director of the Vienna Health Association (WIGEV), Evelyn Kölldorfer-Leitgeb, such a model would already work well between Klinik Landstrasse and Favoriten. The difference, however, is that the Landstrasse is just an ambulance.

Concentration of activity is the motto
“The Vienna hospital concept provides for the concentration of activities in centers for the overall improvement of the structure,” says Alderman for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ). However, in the case of the merged children’s department, this also means that fewer staff have to provide the same service.

“You can do anything and maybe it will work. But what does that do to job satisfaction?” asks Stefan Ferenci, vice president of the Medical Association.

Short-term eclipse?
Moreover, the merger was just a short disguise for the fact that you simply couldn’t find any more staff. “Of course you don’t want to admit that you have to close the pediatric ward in Europe’s most modern hospital,” says Ferenci.

“It is often difficult and there is not one solution for everything. But I am confident that we can do it,” said Kölldorfer-Leitgeb.