This is the result of a survey commissioned by the Vienna Medical Association after a series of so-called risk reports from Peter Hajek’s Public Opinion Strategies. The doctors also criticize the city politics severely.
From September 21 to October 4, 1,894 employed doctors in Vienna were surveyed online. The range of fluctuation is plus/minus 2.3 percent. “The medical profession feels left alone with their problems,” Hajek summarized the results.
Video: Analysis of the PC of the Medical Association
84 percent of Viennese hospital doctors agree with the statement that “the current general conditions in the hospital lead to a sustained and lasting loss of quality in the medical care of patients”. 64 percent very much agree with this statement, another 20 percent tend to agree. Only two percent completely disagreed with the statement. 78 percent agree with the statement that there are major bottlenecks in the care of patients in Vienna’s hospitals – 50 percent very much, another 28 percent rather.
82 percent also state that the current framework conditions are leading to a sustained and lasting loss of quality in the medical training of trainee doctors. Younger people see this point even more critically, but the majority of older people also share this view.
City politics does not come off well
City politics doesn’t get off well with the Viennese hospital doctors. 72 percent state that Vienna’s city policy is doing “nothing about the problems in Vienna’s hospitals”. And 68 percent agree that City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) does not take the risk reports from Vienna hospitals “seriously enough”.
The President of the Vienna and Austrian Medical Associations, Johannes Steinhart, explained that such risk reports are primarily an internal tool. They were supposed to lead to changes, but that didn’t happen. Stefan Ferenci, chairman of the curia for employed doctors and vice president of the Vienna Medical Association, explained that there had been reports of danger for a long time, but that no consequences had been drawn. Therefore, the colleagues would have turned to the public. Instead, the Vienna Health Association (WIGEV) issued a “gag decree”. Ferenci accused WIGEV of resigning numerous colleagues because the health association told them that they should leave if the general conditions did not suit them.
In the next two weeks, the Vienna Medical Association now wants to organize “action weeks” and visit all hospitals. We want to encourage our colleagues to continue to report grievances. The Vienna Medical Association is expressly in “solidarity” with the strike announced for tomorrow, Wednesday, in the Viennese order hospitals.
Ferenci pointed out that all proposed solutions so far would take around three to six years to bear fruit. As a first step, he therefore suggests talking openly and honestly about the construction sites and addressing the problems. In addition, all vacancies must first be filled – “whatever the cost.”
Source: Nachrichten
