Outgoing KAGes chief criticises Liezen hospital decision

Gerhard Stark, outgoing head of the Styrian Hospital Company KAGes, has criticised the state government’s decision against a central hospital in the Liezen district, calling it “bad politics” in an interview with ORF Steiermark.

Stark, who has led KAGes since December 2021, will retire on October 1. KAGes is Styria’s largest company, with more than 19,000 employees.

He said the shortage of doctors and nursing staff in Styria’s public hospitals had now been resolved. Stark attributed the improvement partly to new employment models and opportunities created by restructuring the hospital system into seven networks. He also said salaries had been adjusted to the national average, but added that money alone was not enough.

Stark said a central hospital in Liezen would have been the ideal solution from a medical perspective. He criticised what he described as “polemical behaviour without medical expertise”, saying it had contributed to divisions within the population.

He said the alternative, involving hospital cooperation across state borders with Upper Austria and Salzburg, had nevertheless significantly improved medical care in the Stall and Salzkammergut regions.

After leaving KAGes, Stark will continue working as an internist at his own practice in Mooskirchen.