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Austrian GPs can now conduct ‘rapid’ coronavirus testing

Since Thursday, Austrian GPs have been permitted to carry out ‘rapid coronavirus testing’, however the rollout has not been without problems.

Published: 23 October 2020 15:34 CEST

Austrian GPs can now conduct 'rapid' coronavirus testing

Photo: ALEX HALADA / AFP

On Wednesday, October 21st, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober announced that general practitioners across the country would now be allowed to carry out rapid testing for coronavirus.

Pursuant to the scheme, GPs will be able to decide voluntary whether to join the testing scheme – with the costs of the tests covered by health insurance providers.

Patients can make an appointment online or via the telephone, before being swabbed by their doctor.

However, as reported by Austria’s Kurier newspaper on Friday, enthusiasm for the scheme has been dampened on its rollout – by a lack of tests.

The Austrian Medical Association, said that while the scheme should be welcomed amid rising infection rates, there were not enough tests made available.

“Even if they (doctors) would like to test, they cannot yet because the tests are not there. It cannot be that doctors who are currently under constant stress anyway have to deal with this,” said Edgar Wutscher from the Austrian Medical Association.

When making the announcement, Anschober promised there would be enough tests.

The President of the Medical Association, Thomas Szekeres, also said that many practices were unable to carry out the tests as they did not have enough space to separate possibly infected patients from those visiting for other health ailments.

The regulation requires that non-infectious and potentially infectious patients be kept apart as part of the testing regime.

Unlike the PCR tests, the rapid tests provide an answer within 20 minutes – and only cost 10 euros. They are however considered to be less accurate.

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Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Accessing essential healthcare within a reasonable timeframe is becoming increasingly difficult for Viennese residents.

The Vienna Medical Association presented their new study this week which shows that waiting times for appointments with health specialists have increased significantly in recent years.

The study, which involved contacting over 850 doctors’ practices via so-called “mystery calls,” revealed that child and adolescent psychiatry currently had the longest waiting times in the city.

Patients can expect to wait an average of 90 days for an appointment.

Other specialisations where patients have to wait long to receive help include radiology (57 days), neurology (45 days), ophthalmology (44 days), pulmonology (36 days), internal medicine (33 days), and dermatology (28 days).

The waiting time for seeing a gynaecologist has increased fourfold since 2012, with patients now waiting an average of 32 days.

READ MORE: Why are there fewer public sector doctors in Austria?

No new patients accepted

In certain specialist areas, there is no capacity to accommodate new patients. The situation where no new patients are accepted occurs particularly often in paediatric practices, where more than half of the public healthcare practices have put a freeze on admissions.

In child and adolescent psychiatry, 40 percent do not accept new patients, and among gynaecologists, it is almost a third (30 percent). Family doctors also struggle with welcoming new patients, and many of their practices have already reached full capacity.

The Medical Association calls for immediate action, urging the health insurance sector to become more attractive and receive better funding. This could involve measures to incentivise doctors to work within the public system, potentially reducing wait times and improving patient access to care.

During the study presentation, Johannes Steinhart, president of the association, described the increased waiting times as the result of neglect within the established health insurance sector. He said he believes that the public health system is massively endangered.

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, chairwoman of the Curia of the resident doctors in the association, pointed out that while the population of the federal capital has grown by 16 percent since 2012, the number of public doctors has fallen by 12 percent in the same period.

The association now wants to make the public healthcare system more attractive to doctors, which could cut down waiting times and make it easier for patients to receive care. The association’s demands for this to happen include increasing flexibility in contract options, integrating health and social professions in individual practices, reducing bureaucracy, and improving fees.

ÖGK, Österreichische Gesundheitskasse, Austria’s largest public healthcare fund, is currently creating 100 additional public health positions, with almost two-thirds of the positions already having applicants, as well as planning for another 100 positions. They also aim to create a central telemedicine service and a platform for making appointments by phone and online, which is meant to reduce waiting times and improve access to care.

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