Six new doctors

LKH Hartberg: More operations and shorter waiting times

Good news for the LKH Hartberg

(Bild: Sepp Pail)

The surgery department at Hartberg Regional Hospital is undergoing changes: Recently, accident surgery operations have also been carried out at the weekly clinic. Waiting times are to be shortened and several new doctors have joined the team. 

In times of closed beds and staff shortages, there are also positive developments at Styrian hospitals, for example in the east: since the beginning of the year, Hartberg Regional Hospital has formed the "LKH Oststeiermark" association together with the hospitals in Feldbach and Fürstenfeld. The surgery departments were merged in terms of organization - and now those responsible are taking stock of the situation.

"We can offer broader and better training for young doctors, they rotate between the three hospitals," says Medical Director Peter Krippl to the Krone. The hospital is therefore becoming more attractive - and will soon be able to welcome six new doctors to the network: anaesthetists (of whom there is a shortage throughout Austria), general and trauma surgeons. 

From left: Martin Kriwanek (Deputy Operations Director), Walter Prager (Head of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology), Nursing Director Markus Kaufmann, Robert Hoyer (Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine), Medical Director Peter Krippl, Angelika Elisabeth Kernbichler (Deputy Nursing Director), qualified nurse Jacqueline Kornhofer, Senior Training Physician Günter Wolf, Deputy Medical Director Norbert Bauer, Operations Director Peter Braun

(Bild: LKH Oststeiermark)

More operations in Hartberg
A significant change is about to take place at Hartberg Hospital. The weekly clinic (since the beginning of the year, operations have no longer been performed at weekends) has been split up, so to speak, and in addition to a general surgery department, there has also been a trauma surgery department for a few weeks now. This is necessary because the generation of surgeons who were trained in both areas are now leaving the hospitals and retiring.

Some night shifts have already been filled, and in the final expansion in the fall and winter, a general surgeon and a trauma surgeon will be present every night. The number of operations will be gradually increased, and a new cooperation model with external anaesthetists means that operations will be carried out two days a week for twelve hours. The operations will be divided between the three sites in the network in such a way that the operating theatres can be evenly utilized, according to the promise. Waiting times for patients will be reduced and the Feldbach site will be relieved.

Medical Director Peter Krippl speaks with satisfaction of an "expansion of services". The central initial admission unit (ZAE) is already in operation in Hartberg. The well-utilized maternity department, whose future was in doubt for several months last year, is no longer in question.