Vienna hospital opens four new operating theatres

Vienna’s Klinik Landstraße hospital has put four new operating theatres into service after a year of construction, ORF reported. The facilities are intended to make operating schedules more flexible and reliable, particularly when urgent and emergency procedures are needed at short notice.

The four theatres are located on the hospital’s ground floor and cover about 1,000 square metres. The hospital said the project created modern operating rooms and a coordinated working environment for patients and staff.

Peter Krafft, head of anaesthesia and intensive care, said planned procedures and urgent operations could now be coordinated more effectively. He added that reliable processes around surgery were as important as medical quality.

The new operating area had to be integrated into the existing structure of a building dating from the 1970s. According to the hospital, this required customised solutions for features including expansion joints and the limited height available for the floor structure.

The rooms include heated wall panels to provide additional warmth for staff who may spend extended periods in the cool airflow during an operation. Staff also contributed their experience from daily operating-room work to the planning. Short routes, clearly defined functional areas, dedicated storage and designated patient waiting areas are intended to support daily procedures.

Two existing operating theatres also benefit from the new adjoining rooms. In ophthalmology, the two directly neighbouring theatres are expected to simplify logistics, cooperation and staff training.

The hospital carried out 14,269 operations in 2025. Ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat medicine, and dermatology accounted for 6,123 of them. These three departments will be the main users of the new theatres: two are primarily intended for ophthalmology, while the other two will mainly serve ear, nose and throat medicine and dermatology. All four rooms can also be used by multiple specialties.