The shortage of caregivers in Salzburg also affects the youngest children. Even if they already have hearing problems, they only have enlarged tonsils removed after nine months.
It’s unbearable. This is what an ear, nose and throat doctor from Salzburg thinks about the prevailing situation. Harald Supersberger has been experiencing the following in his medical practice for a year and a half: “Many of my patients are children with an enlarged tonsil. They urgently need surgery in Salzburg’s state clinics, but they cannot get it.”
Problems in communication development
They would have to wait nine months to a year for their child’s turn. “How long?” worried mothers and fathers ask the doctor. They are concerned about the hearing development of their daughters and sons. ENT doctor Supersberger describes the problem as follows: “If the tonsils are enlarged, it is difficult to breathe through the nose and ear infections can also occur. The inflammation makes you have difficulty hearing. Children risk disadvantages in their communicative development.”
The doctor says that the waiting times are probably due to a lack of nurses and that tumors are operated on as a priority. However, such long waiting times at the ‘central location for treatment’, i.e. the state clinics, are unreasonable.
SALK management assures us that the emergency supplies are safe. Up to nine months of waiting time and the lack of nurses as the cause, that’s right. We regret the inconvenience caused by the planned operations. Medical circles say the management has received a report from hospital doctors about ‘imminent danger’. The “Krone” did not receive a concrete answer to the question of whether this was true.
Of the 200 surgical nurses, 45 are currently missing
“We have repeatedly communicated that there is a shortage of staff, especially in surgical care,” it stressed. Of the more than 200 employees, 45 were missing. In any case, efficiency in the operating room has increased: almost as many operations are performed in the ENT university clinic as in 2019.
According to SALK, a problem is the many nocturnal patients in the ENT clinic, a third of whom are parents with children. Nursing staff would be less available during the day due to night work. In 2022, 29,620 people came to the outpatient clinic (2019: 27,480). Federal politics is responsible for the fact that surgical assistants trained by SALK cannot start working until 2025. A new outpatient clinic is currently being planned to remedy the situation.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
