Minister on Reform

Schumann: “No hospital closures, but…”

Korinna Schumann must cut costs in healthcare.(Bild: HELMUT FOHRINGER / Jauschowetz Christian / Krone Kreativ)

“No hospitals will be closed,” Health Minister Korinna Schumann has stated repeatedly in recent days, thereby also opposing Chancellor and coalition partner Christian Stocker. But now the tone has changed; an “but” during the ORF Press Hour has caught people’s attention—and is likely making small hospitals tremble...

For weeks, both the coalition and the SPÖhave been debating internally whether smaller hospitals should be closed as part of the healthcare reform. So far, the red Health Minister Korinna Schumann has always taken a clear stance: “There will be no sweeping cuts, no hospital closures,” she countered, for example, in response to criticism from the SPÖ state governors Daniel Fellner (Carinthia) and Hans Peter Doskozil (Burgenland). But suddenly, none of this sounds so clear anymore...

What Will Happen to Small Hospitals
Of course, no locations will be closed, Schumann said on ORF’s “Pressestunde,” but: It is not certain whether they will continue to exist as hospitals. They could also be converted into primary care centers or other healthcare facilities. The health minister said that decisions on what kind of care is needed would be made on a cross-state basis.

Once the structure is in place, there should also be a management system that, for example, shows which intensive care beds are available. This is intended to prevent tragic cases of lack of care or improper care, such as the one in Rohrbach, Upper Austria, in the future. There, a woman died last year from a ruptured aorta because there was no available intensive care bed.

Korinna Schumann must cut costs in healthcare.(Bild: HELMUT FOHRINGER / Jauschowetz Christian / Krone Kreativ)

Waiting times should also be reduced by the management system—though Schumann could not say when, when asked. In any case, the number of primary care providers should be further expanded, and the 1450 health hotline should be utilized more extensively.