Punch of the week

Gold-plated medical association doesn’t care about patients

Waiting times at doctors' surgeries are now so long that it's best to wait for your own autopsy results for an in-depth diagnosis.

Two-tier medicine has taken on absurd proportions and feels something like this: Bloodletting, medicinal herbs and prayers for mere mortals (with the emphasis on mortal) and golden operating theaters and instant replacement organs for those at the top.

Those with a fat wallet can still get an appointment for an MRI scan between 1 and 1.30 p.m., while the rest of us just sit back and watch.

And yet: because more and more Austrians simply have no other choice, they go to expensive doctors. Hence the name: elective doctor. Their only chance: if they are lucky, they will get a few cents of the 200 euro bill refunded by the health insurance company.

From July, patients can insist that they no longer hobble from pillar to post with the bill themselves, but that the doctor of choice takes care of it. The bureaucratic effort compared to hospital doctors who have to rummage through the chest of the injured person with one hand and fill out the patient file with the other: ridiculously low.

And yet: even that is too much for the Medical Association. As reported, it doesn't give a damn about patients' rights and openly calls on its members to let this deadline pass. Patients should take care of their own charity. The USA can send a rover to Mars, we can't even manage the automation of fees.

The Medical Association - our Punch and Judy of the week.