Lorenz Böhler trauma centre redevelopment stays on schedule

The redevelopment of the Lorenz Böhler trauma centre in Vienna’s Brigittenau district is progressing as planned, ORF reported. A new modular building with a dedicated bed wing is due to be completed in December, with opening planned for February or March 2027.

Construction is taking place on the site of the former car park, and interior work is already under way, medical director Thomas Beer told the Austrian Press Agency. No delays have been reported, he said.

Once the building opens, staff and equipment currently located in Meidling are expected to return to Brigittenau. The new building will have three operating theatres, 56 standard ward beds and four intensive care beds.

Although the new facility will have about half as many beds as the former hospital, the reduction is part of a strategic restructuring planned several years ago. Meidling will handle the care of the most seriously injured patients, while Brigittenau will focus mainly on planned treatments and operations.

Brigittenau will not have a conventional shock room equipped specifically for the most seriously injured. However, the centre will retain the capacity to treat such patients when necessary. Beer described the planned facility as a scaled-down version of a shock room and said emergency services would still be able to take patients there.

The hospital was partially closed in 2024 because of fire safety deficiencies and was reduced to outpatient services. Services and staff were transferred to the AUVA trauma centre in Meidling, another accident hospital in Vienna.

The day clinic already operating at Lorenz Böhler has since performed about 2,000 procedures, according to the AUVA. These included 680 arthroscopic operations on knee, elbow or wrist joints and more than 200 cruciate ligament operations.

The old bed wing is currently largely unused, and rescue helicopters no longer land on its roof. Beer said it was not yet clear what would happen to the building. Renovation work so far has focused on the outpatient department, where structural measures were taken to improve safety and meet official requirements, including the permanent presence of firefighters.