[ad_1]
The SPÖ continues to criticize the health budget. SPÖ party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner spoke on Friday, flanked by the president of the Medical Association Thomas Szekeres, of a loss of 350 million euros for hospitals in the next year, this is “an attack on our hospitals , and that in the middle of a pandemic of the century “. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) accused the opposition of “scaremongering”.
Rendi-Wagner referred to 130 million euros in cuts in hospital financing, 40 million less from the share of the revenues of the states and municipalities in the sales tax and 180 million euros of the State’s obligation to reimburse the social Security. Good medical care in Austria is not a routine matter, said Rendi-Wagner, who also told the press conference that her mother was only discharged from the intensive care unit two weeks ago after a Covid infection.
“Courts against all reason”
“A federal government endowed with reason and responsibility would not think now about cutting precisely in public health care, precisely in public hospitals,” he said. That is “against all reason” and “a dangerous game with health.”
The medical director of the Vienna Health Association, Michael Binder, joined Rendi-Wagner at the media event, as did the president of the Medical Association, Szekeres. Two-thirds of hospital costs are staff costs, so less budget means fewer staff, Szekeres said. A reduction of the health system in the midst of the pandemic is “counterproductive, almost a coup.” After talking with the government, he assumes that the legal framework will soon be created so that health spending is no longer linked to the (fall) of income, the Minister of Health had promised.
Anschober promises budget compensation
Anschober, however, again rejected the SPÖ accusations before the start of the SPÖ press conference: “The continuous accusations that there will be cuts in funding for hospitals next year do not really win with their constant repetition”, Anschober said in a broadcast. “I call on the opposition not to use scare tactics.” There will be no cuts.
Due to Corona, tax revenues are falling, so a lower budget contribution is shown “purely formal” in the budget proposal. However, as in many other areas, additional expenses from the crisis would also be financed, Anschober said. He has already asked the finance minister to initiate appropriate talks with the countries. “It is absolutely clear that this government is not abandoning hospitals, especially in the worst health crisis in recent decades, but that its real needs are assured.”
Rendi-Wagner doesn’t really believe that yet. However, until the budget decision in mid-November, the minister had the “opportunity to turn his words into action.”
FPÖ worried about Christmas
FPÖ club president Herbert Kickl locates a “traffic light and regulation chaos” in the crown pandemic and attests to the irresponsibility of the turquoise green federal government in its purest form. A state emergency was triggered, he said in a broadcast. Neither the crown traffic light nor the test strategy works for NEOS.
“All citizens, employees, businessmen, families, teachers and students, and now very recently, visitors to the All Saints’ Day cemetery are unsettled by a jumble of rules,” Kickl said angrily: prophet to know that the government is for the Austrians Christmas will also be prohibited, that did not even exist in times of war “.
For Neos, health spokesman Gerald Loacker found more question marks after “Thursday’s embarrassment over Corona regulation” after Friday’s press conference by Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens). The test strategy presented this week is also inadequate for Loacker. Rapid antigen testing exclusively in doctor’s offices is completely impractical and does not meet the goal of a meaningful containment strategy (Red./apa).
