Styria campaign directs asylum beneficiaries to family doctors

The Austrian state of Styria, the Medical Chamber and the Austrian Integration Fund have launched a campaign urging people granted asylum or subsidiary protection to see a family doctor first, ORF reported. The initiative aims to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments and outpatient clinics and to improve patients’ understanding of Austria’s healthcare system.

The campaign, titled “Always see your family doctor first”, is aimed particularly at people with asylum or subsidiary protection status and those receiving basic care in Styria. Organisers say people who have recently arrived in Austria sometimes make heavy use of hospital emergency departments and outpatient clinics because they are unfamiliar with the system and with which services are responsible for different health problems.

“In outpatient clinics and doctors’ offices, we see every day where a lack of knowledge about our healthcare system leads: overcrowded emergency departments and valuable time that is missing for genuine emergencies,” Medical Chamber President Michael Sacherer said.

The campaign says a family doctor should generally be the first point of contact for health problems. If necessary, the doctor can then refer patients to specialists or a hospital outpatient clinic. Hospital emergency departments and outpatient clinics are sometimes used for complaints that could be treated more quickly and just as competently by doctors outside the hospital system, the campaign says.

Posters and brochures in six languages will be distributed at basic-care accommodation facilities in Styria. The information will also be presented in workshops, values and orientation courses, and other information programmes organised by the Austrian Integration Fund.