Trouble over surgery appointments

“Medical care is a question of geography”

Susanne Pitschko lived in Vienna for 55 years. When the hospital realized that she now lived in Lower Austria, she was taken off the surgery list.(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

Episode 2 of our major series on the Viennese healthcare system deals with surgery waiting times and guest patients. More and more Lower Austrians feel like second-class patients in Vienna. Ex-Viennese Susanne Pitschko has also had to realize this since moving to Mauerbach. Side effects for the Viennese: long surgery waiting times. Plus: where there are particularly many guest patients in hospital. 

The costs for the Viennese healthcare system are exploding. The city has to make savings. One of the adjustments: there are now upper limits for non-Viennese patients in the capital's hospitals. Their number has increased significantly in recent years (see chart). But behind every rejected patient is an individual fate.