Drastic increase

Children have to wait a year for ear surgery

The waiting time for a curative ear operation at the clinic in Wels has risen particularly sharply.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart .)

For young patients who become hard of hearing in the middle of their speech development, the healing procedure is increasingly becoming a game of patience. Although the necessary ear operation only takes a few minutes, waiting times in hospitals have increased dramatically in some cases.

It's all about so-called tympanic effusions: This is a secretion that can block the middle ear after infections. "The children then hear like someone who needs a hearing aid," explains Georg Langmayr, representative of the ENT doctors in Upper Austria. Three to five-year-olds are particularly affected. "Hearing is particularly important for speech development at this age. The secretions are also a breeding ground for all kinds of germs," says Langmayr. In other words, it is important to remove the secretions from children as quickly as possible.

From eight weeks to eleven months waiting time
However, this is exactly what young patients are having to wait increasingly longer for, as "Krone" inquiries at the seven hospitals that offer the procedure in Upper Austria show. At Wels-Grieskirchen Hospital, children are waiting eleven months - a year ago it was just eight weeks. Patience is now also required at the Sisters of Mercy in Linz: last year the waiting time was 18 to 20 weeks, now it is six to twelve months.

Waiting times of more than three months are actually negligent, as this restricts the children's language development. This is damage that we can't make up for later.

Georg Langmayr, Fachgruppenvertreter HNO in der Ärztekammer OÖ

Bild: Georg Langmayr

The Kepler University Hospital also waits up to a year, the Steyr Clinic nine months and the Salzkammergut Clinic five months. At Ried Hospital, the waiting time has remained the same at 20 weeks, only at Braunau Hospital children can now be seen earlier - in three instead of five months. However, all clinics emphasize that urgent cases are being brought in much earlier.

Staff shortage is the reason
The reason for the waiting game is a well-known one: Staff shortages of doctors as well as nurses in the operating room and anesthesia department.

"Waiting times of more than three months are actually negligent because they restrict the children's speech development," says ENT specialist Langmayr. "That's damage that we can't make up for later."