Until the end of 2026

Hospital boss Gerhard Stark to step down early

Surprise at the Styrian hospital company Kages: Its CEO Gerhard Stark will retire much earlier than planned, namely in 2026 instead of 2028. This means that the top position will have to be filled in the middle of a huge reform process.

Gerhard Stark's contract runs until the end of February 2028, but he will leave the Executive Board in mid or late 2026. Stark confirmed a report in the "Kleine Zeitung" newspaper to the "Krone" on Saturday. Reason: He wants to leave the field to younger people.

Stark has been at the helm of Kages, which has almost 19,000 employees, since December 2021. He succeeded Karlheinz Tscheliessnigg, who had to step down after controversial statements about the coronavirus vaccination. Stark had previously worked for religious hospitals (Elisabethinen, Barmherzige Brüder) and took on the job at the request of the then governor Hermann Schützenhöfer.

Pushing for further reforms
The head of Kages not only had to manage the pandemic, but also the considerable staff shortages in the provincial hospitals. Restructuring is a reliable source of regional resistance; the Liezen lead hospital project developed into an endless cause célèbre anyway and was stopped by the FPÖ and ÖVP after the regional elections in order to work out a "Plan B".

Doctors in Upper Styria in particular are pushing for further structural reforms and a new structural plan is to be drawn up this year. A delicate time, therefore, in which a new CEO will soon be sought. Incidentally, the contract with the second CEO, Ulf Drabek, also runs until March 2028.