If you are waiting for a planned operation, you need a lot of patience. Just a few examples: For a varicose vein surgery, the waiting time in the Kepler University Hospital Linz is up to 90 weeks. If you need a new hip, you have to be patient for up to 60 weeks in the Linz religious clinic. And for a knee prosthesis, it’s your turn after about 73 weeks. A 46-year-old woman who reported to the Chamber of Labor needed a herniated disc operation. And should have been waiting for 60 weeks.
The bank employee had such severe pain that every day after getting up in the morning became a pain. She just couldn’t and did not want to wait for an operation for so long, went to a Linz hospital and had the intervention there as a private patient. The price for this: 5,600 euros. Paid from your own pocket.
“I paid into the system for many years. I didn’t get anything back from the Austrian health insurance fund. There was only a mild smile for me,” says the 46-year-old. “I had to spend a total of 405 days in the sick leave, that was not funny. My employer did not cancel me and always motivated me not to give up. Now I look hopefully into the future,” said the woman.
„It cannot be that someone has extremely severe pain over a long period of time and then an urgently needed operation has to pay for itself. Here a lot goes wrong in our health system in Upper Austria
“, Says AK President Andreas Stangl. He also sees state politics in responsibility to significantly reduce the waiting times for all insured persons and to put a stop to two-class medicine.”Health must not be dependent on income
“, Said President Stangl.
OTS original text press release with the exclusive in terms of content of the sender – www.ots.at | Ako