A look at personnel files

This is how many employees the Vienna Healthcare Association has

Aisle beds, closed wards and staff shortages - the Vienna Healthcare Association has had to fight on many fronts in recent months. What is the current situation?

(Bild: Wigev/Meieregger)

The pandemic and its aftermath pushed healthcare and the Vienna Healthcare Association (Wigev) to its limits. Staff planning in particular was heavily criticized. Wigev is now providing an insight into this area for the first time. Did frustrated employees turn their backs on the healthcare association in droves? 

The past few years of the pandemic have left their mark on Vienna's healthcare system. The clinics were bursting at the seams. Patients piled up in outpatient clinics and entire wards had to be closed due to staff shortages. This resulted in dozens of reports of maladministration in Viennese clinics. Employees themselves often warned of a collapse of the system. The misguided personnel policy in the healthcare association was cited as one of the reasons.

Personnel planning criticized
The Vienna Medical Association in particular was heavily criticized. Doctors and nurses were at their limit and were turning their backs on Wigev in droves, was one of the accusations. A lack of transparency was also cited with regard to required or allocated posts. Now, for the first time, the Directorate General has provided a comprehensive insight into the personnel files from 2019 to 2023 - and the figures are sometimes astonishing.

Staff numbers have remained almost the same 
First the facts: One of the biggest challenges for the healthcare association was securing and retaining qualified staff. In total, Wigev has around 28,500 approved positions, with the staffing level remaining constant at around 94% despite the pandemic. However, the number of permanent positions has also remained almost the same since the end of 2020. The healthcare association presents itself as a very attractive employer. 29,169 people from around 100 countries work in 70 different professions in the municipal clinics and care homes. 

More and more are turning their backs on nursing care
Nevertheless, the need for additional staff is clearly noticeable. Nursing is still a cause for concern: the staffing ratio here (2023: 92.66%) is below that of doctors and has fallen by one to two percentage points every year. The healthcare association has not yet succeeded in halting this trend completely.

Calculation partially works
However, despite a wave of retirements and a shortage of skilled workers across the industry, more employees joined the company in 2023 than left. Specifically, a total of 3171 new employees joined the company compared to 3047 who left.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com | Quelle: Wiener Gesundheitsverbund)

1000-euro recruitment bonus proves to be a complete success
How does the company intend to make up ground, especially in the area of nursing care? First and foremost is the expansion of training places in the clinical area. Training places for doctors have increased by 17.6 percent since 2022. Training places have also almost doubled in the fields of nursing and medical, therapeutic and diagnostic healthcare professions. In addition, there are funding opportunities such as the chance of employment during training. The recruitment bonus also proved to be a successful recruitment tool. In 2023, over 700 new employees were recruited in this way. There were also increases in starting salaries in shortage areas such as child and adolescent psychiatry, psychiatry, anaesthesia, radiology, radiotherapy and trauma surgery/orthopaedics.

(Bild: Quelle: Wiener Gesundheitsverbund)

Sickness rates and part-time work as problem children
However, the high part-time rate and the increase in sick leave days (including short-term sick leave) pose major challenges. Both figures have risen significantly in recent years, making duty scheduling difficult at times. In the care sector, one in three employees is already only working part-time. And the number of sick days has also risen significantly in five years. Further improvements are needed here.