Patients currently usually have to wait several months for the thyroid nodules to clear up. The reasons for this include department mergers and a lack of staff, nuclear medicine experts warn. They demand action against this bottleneck.
From the age of 50, approximately one in three people in Austria has a thyroid nodule, and from the age of 65 even more than one in two. Women are affected more often than men. In the vast majority of cases, the nodules are benign, but they can also affect the functioning of the thyroid gland or cause symptoms such as a feeling of pressure in the throat.
The size and tissue composition can be examined using an ultrasound. If the lump is one centimeter in diameter, it should be further investigated using nuclear medicine to rule out malignancy. However, according to the specialists, there is insufficient care available.
No direct invoicing at ÖGK
“Hospitals increasingly have to outsource complex nuclear medicine services, such as thyroid research and treatment, to extramural institutes or practices. There are a number of such facilities in each state, but only a few of them can invoice directly to the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK),” said a press release. Appointment availability is limited and you usually have to wait several months for clarification.
The medical specialist association had drawn up a catalog of nuclear medicine services with tariff proposals four years ago and presented it to the Austrian Medical Association (ÖAK) and ÖGK. The doctors criticized Friday that negotiations had not even taken place so far.
There are too few people who receive training
The medical specialist association also sees a bottleneck in the fact that too few young doctors choose to train in nuclear medicine. After training, about a fifth would go on to work in fields such as radiology and internal medicine. The supply bottleneck must be addressed.
Source: Krone
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