Only 17 panel doctors: paediatricians call for better conditions
health
Salzburg’s resident pediatricians are demanding better working conditions. Especially in winter, when more children get sick and many tourists have to be treated, many are overwhelmed. There are a total of 17 panel doctor positions in the federal state.
Seven children’s panel doctors work in the city of Salzburg – two each in Tennengau and Flachgau. There are three panel doctors in Pongau, two in Pinzgau and one in Lungau. Statistically, there are 5,200 children and young people under the age of 18 for every doctor in Salzburg, and in recent weeks there have been many young patients who needed a pediatrician.
Christmas holidays: 130 children treated a day
Some Salzburg health insurance paediatricians would treat up to 100 children per day. This includes planned examinations, such as the mother-child passport examinations, as well as acute cases of illness. During the Christmas holidays, pediatrician Holger Förster treated up to 130 children on peak days, almost twice as many as usual: “The time for the individual patient remains the same, only my day is significantly longer – that’s twelve or 14-hour days. You can do that for a few days, but it’s impossible over a certain period of time.” Such a burden on doctors endangers quality. “And you run the risk of overlooking something,” emphasizes the pediatrician Förster.
Ticket office in Saalfelden open for three years
In the warmer months it is usually a little quieter in the surgeries. In addition to the 17 statutory health insurance doctor posts there are 16 pediatric doctors in Salzburg. One position is currently vacant in the city of Salzburg and one in Saalfelden (Pinzgau), where the then panel doctor left the position three years ago due to overwork, according to the ÖGK. To this day, this cash office has not been filled: “Even the honor situation among paediatricians is not sufficient,” criticized the President of the Medical Association, Karl Forstner.
Tariffs for panel doctors unattractive?
The Salzburg pediatrician spokesman Holger Förster is now calling for better working conditions in the ordinations. It is about, for example, family-friendly working hours or the tariffs of the panel doctors. Many paediatricians emphasize that they do their job out of conviction and not because of the payment.
Hospital doctors in practices and more training positions
In the long term, the Medical Association and the Austrian Health Insurance Fund also have proposals to relieve the burden on resident doctors. For example, hospital doctors should also work in the practices and more training positions for paediatricians should be created. According to all sides, there have been talks for a long time, but not a precise timetable.