Patient Management: Unified System Commissioned

One of the tasks: A nationwide uniform system for patient management starting in 2027.

"There should be shorter waiting times, faster diagnoses, and quicker surgery appointments," announced Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP) after the meeting with top representatives of the federal government, states, and municipalities as a slogan in the health sector. It should also address the question of competencies. Stocker recently set the goal of financing, controlling, and planning from a single source. However, the question of which structure is most efficient will only be addressed at the end. The willingness to find a good solution is great on all sides - but there are also "numerous sticking points," Stocker admitted. If we want to continue providing top-notch medicine to the population with limited resources, structural reforms are necessary.

Patient Management, Bureaucracy, General Contract

The planned improved patient management aims to ensure that patients receive appropriate medical care at the right place and time in the future, significantly reducing waiting times, according to a statement from the Federal Chancellery. Other goals for improving the health system include reducing bureaucracy and establishing a general contract for panel doctors, as well as concepts to ensure that medical graduates primarily serve the public system and that private doctors are more integrated into the public system. In the recently much-discussed public question of the distribution of competencies, an expert group is to develop three options for bundling financial flows as well as structural and capacity planning, with the outpatient, inpatient, and ambulatory sectors to be interconnected.

Kindergarten, School, Energy, Administration

In the education sector, there should be a "nationwide corridor for minimum standards" in the future for kindergartens, for example in terms of job profiles and care quality. In schools, administrative responsibilities are to be disentangled and all personnel consolidated. Additionally, the expert group is to develop a concrete proposal on how comprehensive school autonomy can be designed.

In the energy sector, the consolidation of network companies is to be advanced in order to sustainably curb network costs. Another goal, according to the announcement, is to balance regionally different network cost burdens. Through further development or changes in pricing for end customers, the population should benefit from the high share of renewable energies.

In the sub-group for administrative and constitutional streamlining, comprehensive digitization of administration in all local authorities is set as a goal, with a dedicated platform to be established through GovTech Austria. Legal adjustments for municipal cooperation and the mandatory data integration of registers are intended to relieve municipalities. In general, the reduction of bureaucracy at all levels is to be further advanced, and the expert group is to develop a concept for a "more comprehensive competence streamlining."

Stocker Sees "Very Ambitious Plans"

"These are very ambitious plans," emphasized Stocker after the meeting. However, many of the reform plans are also necessary to comply with the Stability Pact.

The goal of the two-hour meeting at the Federal Chancellery was originally to outline the further roadmap for the planned reform by the end of 2026. After the meeting of the steering group consisting of Chancellor Stocker, Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ), NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger, the chairman of the Conference of Provincial Governors Mario Kunasek (FPÖ) and his colleagues from Carinthia and Tyrol, Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) and Anton Mattle (ÖVP), as well as the President of the Association of Municipalities Johannes Pressl (ÖVP) and the President of the Association of Cities Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), hardly any dates were mentioned. However, a new body was established with the permanent subcommittee of the steering group, which is to meet once a month.

The steering group with the top representatives is to meet again at the end of March. By then, everything developed up to that point is to be translated into political decisions to enable implementation in the following year. The central interface of the reform partnership is to be the Federal Chancellery in the future.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.