When it comes to medical care, especially for children, the south of Linz is anything but a promised land. The shortage of doctors is palpable and the problem awaits a quick solution. Two (political) initiatives are now aimed at this.
On the one hand there is the specific demand for a pediatric center in the Grillmayr-Schlössl in Kleinmünchen. On the other hand, FP city councilor Michael Raml and SP parliamentary group leader Stefan Giegler are working together for a primary care center for Kleinmünchen/Auwiesen and Pichling, each with a contract position for a pediatrician.
VP municipal councilor Michaela Sommer, who initiated the signature campaign, sees the currently vacant Schlössl as an “optimal property” for the implementation of this project. The Grillmayr-Schlössl offers enough space and is ideally located to ensure medical care for the people, argues Sommer. Since many young doctors do not want to work alone in a practice or are put off by the high investment costs, a paediatrics center is a good way to attract doctors to the location.
“The current situation is no longer acceptable,” said Sommer when handing over the signatures to the chairman of the state committee of the ÖGK (Austrian health insurance fund), Michael Pecherstorfer. Since a pediatrician closed her practice in the Solar City last year because she was retiring, there is only one pediatrician with a health insurance contract available for the approximately 55,000 people in the south of Linz. The ÖGK does not succeed in filling the position. For the signature campaign, a VP application will also be submitted to the municipal council next week, which calls on the ÖGK general director Bernhard Wurzer to solve the problem quickly.
The political alliance between SP and FP on the shortage of doctors in the south of Linz also leads to a resolution that is to be passed by the municipal council on May 24th. The addressees are the health insurance company, the Medical Association and VP State Councilor Christine Haberlander. They are asked, as it is said, to intensify efforts for the primary care centers in Kleinmünchen and in Pichling. Because: “The people of Linz need security in the medical care of their children,” say Raml and Giegler.
Source: Nachrichten
