Nursing crisis: fear of staff shortages – tirol.ORF.at
politics
Tyrol’s trade unionists are increasingly impatient with the “care and supply crisis” they have identified and are demanding concrete steps from the state and federal government. among other things, there is a threat of a “downsizing” in staff, they warn.
According to a SORA study, around 15 percent of the staff would want to leave, Sonja Föger-Kalchschmied from the sub-union GPA sounded the alarm at an ÖGB press conference on Thursday in Innsbruck.
Gloomy forecasts for the future
In any case, according to Föger-Kalchschmied, precisely that loss of staff would be particularly fatal in view of the imminent demographic development in Austria. “We will need around 76,000 more nursing staff by 2030,” she emphasized, adding: “But we are currently hardly getting any more applications and therefore hardly any new staff”.
Fear of collapsing health system
Gerhard Seier, Chairman of the Public Service Union (GÖD) in Tyrol, described the situation even more clearly. “Our health system will collapse in the foreseeable future,” he emphasized. This has been visible for several years and was even more evident during the corona pandemic.
His trade unionist colleagues also agreed with the diagnoses. “It’s not five past twelve, it’s already 1 p.m.,” said Verena Steinlechner-Graziadei, chairwoman of the “youunion_Die Daseinsgewerkschaft Tirol”. vida Tirol chairman Herbert Frank noted that in Austria there are currently only 16 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants – and the trend is falling.
Demands: More staff and time
In order for the care crisis to ease, there are already concrete ideas “on the table” from the trade unions. These include measures and demands such as “more staff for day and night”, “personnel reserves at state level” or “more time for patients and less administrative work”, according to the trade unionists at the addresses of the state and federal government.
In addition, they are “once again taking to the streets,” said Seier, referring to a planned rally on May 12 in Innsbruck. Participants from Salzburg and Vorarlberg are also expected to attend. Overall, we hope to have as many participants as possible, because the topic of care “is everyone’s business”.