Elective doctor ban:

“If this comes, doctors will leave hospitals”

(Bild: krone.tv )

Vienna's City Councillor for Health, Peter Hacker, recently caused quite a stir with a controversial announcement: "Doctors who only work part-time in hospitals, but otherwise act as elective doctors, will no longer exist in future."

Although the city council received some support for its proposal, the outcry against it was particularly strong. Both from some doctors and from parts of the Vienna Medical Association. Vice President Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied comments on this in an interview on krone.tv: "The proposal is not tenable and also not realistic in terms of work. The doctors and nurses in the hospitals are being trampled underfoot. Working conditions and working hours are insane." Should the Vienna City Councillor for Health actually implement his announcement, this would be an attack on part-time work, according to the Vice President of the Medical Association. And on women's medicine. Because most part-time employees are women. Kamaleyan-Schmied: "I know many colleagues who tell me that if this happens, they will leave the hospital."

Migration to the elective doctor system
The domestic cash register system is also a major reason why satisfaction within the medical profession is decreasing. Kamaleyan-Schmied: "Local politicians need to ask themselves how much the healthcare system is worth to them? If, as a doctor in private practice, I only receive six euros seventy gross per patient in the cash register system, more and more doctors will migrate to the elective doctor system." In any case, there would be far too little time for diagnoses in the cash register system. And when it comes to difficult medical issues such as diabetes or cancer, statutory health insurance medicine cannot go into enough depth. The elective doctor system therefore finances the diagnosis of more complex patient cases. 

(Bild: krone.tv )

Many mental illnesses
The increase in domestic sick leave to an average of 15 days a year was also a key topic of the interview: "We are having to register more and more mental illnesses. The coronavirus pandemic has really accelerated this. But many people have also not been able to deal effectively with the trauma they have experienced. And it's also true that poverty makes you ill. But being ill also makes you poor." In general, the situation would be very stressful for local doctors: "Patients often come to us who are justifiably offended and angry." 

Watch the full interview in the video above!