In Salzburg hospital

Children wait nine months for surgery

If a child suddenly hears less, this is often due to adenoids. But it is difficult to get an operation in Salzburg.(Bild: Kamil Macniak)

The shortage of nurses in Salzburg also affects the youngest children. Even if they already have poor hearing, they only have enlarged tonsils removed after three quarters of a year.

It is unbearable. This is how a Salzburg ear, nose and throat specialist feels about the prevailing situation. Harald Supersberger has been experiencing the following in his practice for a year and a half: "Many of my patients are children with enlarged tonsils. They urgently need an operation at the Salzburg regional clinics, but can't get one."

Problems in the development of communication
They would have to wait nine months to a year for their child's turn. "What, for so long?", worried mothers and fathers ask the doctor. They are worried about their daughters' and sons' hearing development. ENT specialist Supersberger describes the problem as follows: "If you have enlarged tonsils, it's difficult to get air through your nose, and you also get ear infections. The inflammation makes it difficult to hear. Children risk disadvantages in their communication development."

Silvia Lechner and Thomas Gamsjäger have been managing the regional clinics since the beginning of the year. They cite staff shortages and rising patient numbers in the ENT outpatient clinic as reasons for the long waiting times.(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

The doctor says that the waiting times are probably due to a shortage of nurses and that tumors are indeed given priority for surgery. However, such long waiting times at the "central location for treatment", i.e. the regional clinics, are unacceptable.

Emergency care is guaranteed, the SALK management reassures. Waiting times of up to nine months and the shortage of nurses as the cause are true. They regret the inconvenience caused by the planned operations. Doctors say that the management has received a report from hospital doctors about "imminent danger". The "Krone" did not receive a concrete answer as to whether this was true.

45 of 200 OR nurses are currently missing
"We have repeatedly communicated that there is a shortage of staff, especially in operating theatre nursing," it is emphasized. Of more than 200 staff, 45 were missing. In any case, efficiency in the operating theatre has increased - almost as many operations are being performed at the ENT University Hospital as in 2019.

According to SALK, one problem is the many night-time patients in the ENT outpatient clinic, a third of whom are parents with children. Nursing staff are less available during the day due to night work. In 2022, 29,620 people came to the outpatient clinic (2019: 27,480). Federal policy is responsible for the fact that the OR assistants trained by SALK will only be able to work from 2025. A new outpatient clinic is currently being planned to remedy this situation.