Styria is struggling with a shortage of emergency medical services, two deaths are shaking. Experts have long warned, but they have also proposed solutions. Decision-makers now need the will to reform.
The emergency doctor’s crisis continues to heat people up in Styria. “What experts feared has happened!” Gerhard Prause, himself an emergency physician and active on the board of the Working Group for Emergency Medicine (AGN), summed it up in a nutshell in a letter to the editor of Krone.
What the expert suggests
When asked, the expert has several solutions for the current crisis ready, which his association will soon put on paper as a concept: “Emergency care must be fully integrated into the hospital service again. But that is only possible if you reduce the number of call failures and change the training of paramedics so that they learn how to use the necessary equipment.”
Since 1 July, Kages hospitals are obliged to only deactivate the emergency doctor on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The rest of the time should be voluntarily taken over by medical professionals. This has repeatedly resulted in the absence of an emergency physician at some bases in recent weeks. Tip of the iceberg: 2 dead!
“The numbers explode”
In addition to the already too few emergency doctors, many unnecessary calls are also made. “Emergency numbers explode,” Prause said. “Half of the trips don’t require a doctor at all.” Certainly not if paramedics were given more skills. Various schemes also urgently need to be tested for their usefulness. For example, in the city of Graz, an ambulance has to be sent for every fire operation. Only every 50th operation are there victims who need to be cared for.
An integral reform of the indication catalog – here it is determined under which circumstances the control room sends an ambulance – is essential. This measure could be implemented quickly, would reduce the number of deployments and thus create capacity.
Helicopter at night: “Pure cosmetics”
However, a measure decided on Tuesday was purely cosmetic: the nightly take-off permission for a second rescue helicopter. “Helicopters are a necessary supplement in many areas, but not a primary replacement for an ambulance,” Prause said. For the coming months, however, the expert continues to paint a bleak picture: “Some regions will take a long time before everything is rebuilt.”
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.
