Closed practices

Doctor after the flood: “I can no longer carry on”

The area around the Alpenbahnhof was completely under water.

(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

The flood disaster did not stop at surgeries. Many doctors had to close temporarily, one GP in St. Pölten is no longer even open.

"I can't and won't carry on" - Stefan Mrass is at the end of his tether. His surgery near the Alpenbahnhof train station in St. Pölten was literally flooded. The Nadelbach stream, normally a small rivulet in a local recreation area, completely flooded the area during the storm disaster.

The damage to the general practitioner's practice is also enormous. "I would have to invest 100,000 euros to be able to open up again," says Mrass.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

"Don't rebuild everything again"
Too much for the now 62-year-old - especially as he already had to invest a similar sum 15 years ago, one year after opening his practice. Even then, the Nadelbach stream had overflowed.

"I don't want to build everything up again and then the water comes back in two years' time," he says resignedly. Although he doesn't want to think about retiring at the moment, he won't be running a surgery in St. Pölten again.

Mrass is thus tearing a large gap in the healthcare provision in the provincial capital. His patients will now have to turn to other panel doctors, who are often already at the limit of their capacity. On average, there were already around 2,200 patients per GP in St. Pölten at the beginning of the year.

Health centers also affected by the storm
However, Mrass is by no means the only doctor in Lower Austria to be affected by the floods. According to the Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), three other contractual partners in the districts of Amstetten, Lilienfeld and Tulln had to close for a longer period of time. Eight doctors were unable to open their practices for two days and 20 were unable to see their patients for at least one day. 

I had the same experience almost exactly 15 years ago. Back then too, the retention basin of the Nadelbach stream overflowed and the area was flooded. I'm sure it will happen again in a year or two and I don't want to invest 100,000 euros.

Stefan Mrass befürchtet weitere Katastrophen in naher Zukunft

Consequences for healthcare provision
In addition to St. Pölten and the two dental health centers in Amstetten and Krems, the health insurance company's own facilities also fell victim to the floods. According to ÖGK, however, the overall impact of the disaster on healthcare in Lower Austria was limited. "Because most surgeries were only closed for a maximum of two days, no further measures had to be taken," they told the Krone.