All "adversaries" gone

President celebrates victory in medical association war

Medical Association President Johannes Steinhart now sees "constructive forces" at the helm of his medical association.

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

For President Johannes Steinhart, the war in his medical association is over: the public prosecutors no longer see him as a defendant in the Equip4Ordi case. This even makes him think about restarting the scandalous company. The Court of Auditors' devastating ruling on the matter is merely an "interpretation".

House searches, deleted hard drives, confiscated cell phones, criminal investigations and even fights at meetings: A year ago in the fall, the internal war in the Vienna Medical Association was at its peak. President Johannes Steinhart - himself a defendant in the dubious bankruptcy of the medical company Equip4Ordi - fought his way back to power and now sees "all suspicions off the table".

"Everything has been dropped"
The authorities have "dropped everything" in the investigation against him, Steinhart told journalists. The accusations against him were only "aimed at discrediting my person". However, these "adversaries" had "withdrawn". He took note of all this "with great relief", saying that the past few months had been "a stressful time" for him, all the more so "if you know that you are innocent". Steinhart does not even want to rule out a revival of Equip4Ordi.

The Equip4Ordi scandal

Equip4Ordi was one of the business pillars of the Medical Association. The purchasing platform for medical supplies was managed by people close to Steinhart, some of whom are still under investigation. The reason: in-security transactions, unexplained bonuses of over half a million euros and loans unrelated to the company's purpose. The company went bankrupt in March 2023.

Equip4Ordi manager still "competent" for Steinhart
From Steinhart's perspective, Equip4Ordi "only crashed because it was set on fire". The Court of Auditors' recent scathing criticism of Equip4Ordi and the financial conduct of the chamber as a whole is merely "an interpretation". Equip4Ordi has always worked "to the best of its knowledge and belief". The managing director was also a "competent man" and an "excellent employee". The decision to restart the company "is up to the curia", possibly even including the former management: "They have their merits. Let's wait and see what happens." 

Szekeres (center) was Vienna's Medical Association President and Steinhart (right) his deputy until the 2022 Medical Association elections. Then Steinhart took the helm. As the leader of the second-strongest chamber faction, Szekeres now works in the background.

(Bild: APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER)

Chamber to be given compliance rules
As the only organizational consequence of the scandal, however, Steinhart wants to install "a very stringent compliance strategy in future that is worthy of a medical association in 2024". This should primarily serve to "give managers certainty" in their decisions, as in his view, previous wrong decisions were mainly due to incorrect advice from consultants, but not to personal misconduct.

Like the chamber as a whole, the curia that has to decide on the return of Equip4Ordi is now dominated by Steinhart's ÖVP-affiliated parliamentary group and the support of former SPÖ-affiliated chamber president Thomas Szekeres. "The constructive forces have gathered," says Steinhart. He does not want to clarify speculation, including among chamber members, as to what is behind this alliance. However, he does not want to "rule in or rule out" a change of chairmanship on the fly during his term of office.