City of Vienna open – on a trial basis

Although the number of new infections is declining, the call center in Messe Wien opened over the weekend. In recent weeks, accommodation capacities have been created for up to 3,100 crown patients with mild courses. Starting next week, the first people will move into previously empty facilities.

But that has nothing to do with capacity bottlenecks in hospitals, said Vienna city councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ). Rather, now is a good time to start settling, so that processes can play without pressure, and readjustments or improvements can be made if necessary to equip if spaces are still desperately needed.

Tourists and homeless people enter the exhibition hall

And it was already clear that the start of the trial should become a real operation, as he learned from the Vienna city council: a ward of the Geriatric Center Wienerwald (Lainz) is currently occupied with tourists and homeless who have tested positive. In another GZW building, suspicious cases are dismembered, which also cannot be quarantined on their own four walls. Now these people must be transferred to the Messe Wien emergency hospital.

The reason why these homeless people and tourists cannot use the large number of free hospital beds is explained as follows: “These are reserved for acute cases, if there is still a sharp increase in crown cases.” A statement that does not really support the current positive forecasts of the federal government and various health politicians.

City Councilor for Health: “Don’t take it lightly”

Vienna City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker at oe24: “The coronavirus will be with us for a few more months. We are not taking the provisional decline in new infections lightly, on the contrary. Vienna is ready and will continue to prepare. To the best of our ability. That’s why we’re using the next few days to test and optimize our showroom processes and structures so emergencies don’t turn into dress rehearsals. “

The move by the city of Vienna is also surprising because, according to official ministry figures, only 647 of the 17,965 normal beds in Corona patients are currently used in Austria. This corresponds to an occupancy rate of only three percent. Currently there is also no absolute shortage of intensive care patients. Only 208 of the 951 beds are occupied here.

Hospitals start operating again

Vienna hospitals are taking the first step to return to normal operations next week. Specifically, the OR operation is started again. It begins with those operations that had to be postponed due to the crown crisis. In order to handle overdue work more quickly, around 2,000 non-urgent interventions, there is a collaboration with private clinics for the first time.

In hospitals in the federal capital, surgical appointments that were not classified as urgent have also been suspended in recent weeks to keep as large a reserve as possible for the next corona pandemic. Acute or chronic cases continued to be treated. Thanks to the decrease in Covid 19 case numbers, work can now begin to process the waiting list. The general ban on visiting hospitals, such as in retirement homes, remains.

Patients are contacted

Evelyn Kölldorfer-Leitgeb, CEO of the Hospital Association (KAV), told reporters that KAV would contact patients by phone to make an appointment: “No one has to actively call us or come to a hospital. No one will forget.”

A mandatory crown test is done 24 hours before the treatment or the procedure itself. If you are infected with the virus, the appointment should be postponed again. If the patients’ condition worsened during their waiting time, they would of course receive appropriate acute care, Kölldorfer-Leitgeb said.

Private clinics also help to cope with postponed operations, specifically houses belonging to the PremiQaMed Group, Goldenes Kreuz, Privatklinik Döbling and Privatklinik Confraternität. To this end, a cooperation agreement was concluded between KAV and the company, which will initially run until the end of June, reported Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ). This means that there are 123 additional beds available.

Ambulances remain closed

The agreement with the private partner is made on a case-by-case basis, the costs are charged to the health fund through the KAV. Those who are assigned to a private clinic “are not treated as private patients,” Peter Hacker (SPÖ), city councilor for health, lowered hopes for special class status. However, this, of course, would not generate any additional cost for patients. Ludwig said talks about a cooperation are currently taking place with the Rudolfinerhaus and the Evangelical Hospital.

Hacker emphasized that when the business was started, care was taken to ensure that there was still enough capacity for Covid 19 patients. Currently, about a third of 1,000 intensive care beds in the federal capital are available and therefore available for heavy crown courses. There are also around 3,700 beds in normal rooms.

In contrast to stationary operation, outpatient departments in Vienna hospitals remain closed for the time being. It will closely monitor the development of Covid 19 and then decide in two to three weeks whether the outpatient clinics could reopen, he said. Reassignments for surgery appointments are therefore not yet possible.

There’s a kind of soft opening in the spotlight at Messe Wien.