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Switzerland adds parts of Germany, removes Austria from mandatory quarantine list

Switzerland has removed several Austrian states, while adding one German state to its mandatory coronavirus quarantine list. The US has been kept on the list.

Published: 18 December 2020 19:26 CET

Switzerland adds parts of Germany, removes Austria from mandatory quarantine list

A sign at the Swiss border with Italy. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Note: This list is now outdated. A new story has been posted here.

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) announced on Friday that several countries and parts of countries would be removed from the mandatory quarantine list.

As of December 19th, the Austrian states of Carinthia, Styria and Upper Austria are removed from the list.

Those heading to Austria will however be required to quarantine from December 19th.

UPDATED: What you need to know about Austria's Christmas quarantine rules

In addition, French Polynesia, Hungary, Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, Jordan, North Macedonia, Poland and Portugal will be removed from the list.

The German state of Sachsen will now be added to the list, along with the Italian regions of Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto.

A number of countries have remained on the list.

These are: Andorra, Belize, Croatia, Georgia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States of America.

The official updated list can be seen here.

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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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