Numbers explode

Vienna takes action: Upper limit for “surgery tourists”

There are already upper limits for guest patients in Viennese hospitals - now the quotas in some hospitals have apparently been used up.

(Bild: Groh Klemens)

Long waiting times for operations and exploding costs in the healthcare system. Vienna is struggling with this. At the same time, however, Vienna's clinics treat many visiting patients. Vienna now wants to put a stop to this and has therefore introduced upper limits.

Complaints are piling up at the "Krone" newspaper. Tenor: more and more patients are being turned down for operations in Viennese hospitals. The common denominator: their main place of residence is in Lower Austria or Burgenland - definitely not in Vienna. The most common reason for the outrage: "I work in the city, why am I not being treated here?"