Vienna hospital conflict

This is what the Böhler Hospital looks like now!

The patient rooms are empty, inventory is stacked in the cellar.(Bild: zVg)

Vienna's Böhler Hospital, as it was known, is history. Nobody knows how the doctors will continue to work from now on. Instead of solutions for everyday medical care, there is chaos, conflict and question marks over the container hospital idea. Meanwhile, the doctors continue to fight on their own.

From March 26, he will only be a "better trained emergency paramedic", says Heinz Brenner sarcastically. The trauma surgeon at the Lorenz Böhler Hospital is on 24-hour duty there on the first day after the hospital closes for regular operations - but from the stroke of midnight, he has no operating room, no beds, no anaesthetists and no nursing staff.

Böhler teams and patients on their own
Brenner and his colleagues do not yet know what they will do with emergency patients who visit the hospital themselves. Furthermore, there are no instructions from AUVA as to how everyday medical care should function from the day the hospital is closed.

And even if an emergency comes in at 11:59 p.m.: We operate! Because in reality, there is only one person who can do something to a doctor - his patient.

Dr. Heinz Brenner, Notfallchirurg am Lorenz-Böhler-Spital

This means that the Böhler teams not only have to shoulder the responsibility for the patients alone, they also have an ever-increasing amount of extra work: patients are constantly calling in. They have received letters from the AUVA informing them that their operation has been postponed. They are not told when, where or by whom they will be operated on.

The hospital's inventory is piled up in the cellar - if it is not disposed of in containers. The containers also contain functioning equipment and office furniture. The doctors don't know who decides what to throw away and what to keep.(Bild: zVg)

More chaos every day
For the doctors, this is just one of the many facets of the chaotic hospital closure. In recent days, for example, they have had to contend with sudden closures of vital parts of the hospital - and have disregarded the orders. His bosses are the patients, Brenner says grumpily.

The doctors still don't know where they will be on duty in a week's time - probably rotating all the time between the AKH, outpatient operations in the Böhler remnants and duty at the Meidling Accident Hospital. Detail: AUVA envisages that 40 Böhler doctors will share three duty rooms there in future.

The nursing staff will have to say goodbye - they have already been assigned to other hospitals.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

He doesn't really care about the duty rooms, says Brenner, it's about the patients - for example, the fact that the Böhler doctors will have to compete with the Meidling doctors for space in the operating theaters. They are certainly not welcome there. There are reports from Meidling that the Böhlerians only want to "take advantage". A call to order from the AUVA? No answer.

Doctors puzzle over why AUVA doesn't want rental containers
This reinforces the Böhler teams' conviction that a container solution for hospital operations in Brigittenau is needed as soon as possible. The AUVA is standing on the brakes and explains this with EU procurement procedures, where, unlike service instructions for doctors, things are suddenly taken very seriously.

The hospital is not prepared to accept this. After all, a container hospital can also be rented. It would then be ready for operation in a few weeks - and the doctors could work while the AUVA can devote itself to the EU procurement procedure.