SPÖ launches platform to report healthcare problems

Austria’s Social Democrats in Lower Austria have launched an online platform for patients, relatives and healthcare workers to report problems in the health system, including anonymously, ORF reports.

State party leader Sven Hergovich said submissions would be treated confidentially and that the party would follow up every case. A team of legal and medical experts will support the work, which the SPÖ describes as an additional service alongside the patients’ ombudsman.

Hergovich also said he was confident the party had put its internal divisions behind it after a crisis meeting at which federal party leader Andreas Babler’s gradual withdrawal was agreed. He said he would not take up a federal political role and reiterated his opposition to the planned changes to Lower Austria’s emergency doctor system.

Lower Austria’s governing People’s Party criticised the platform. State party manager Matthias Zauner accused Hergovich of populism and said the initiative would compete with the patients’ ombudsman. NEOS state spokesperson Indra Collini said the SPÖ had backed the health plan and had a state councillor responsible for the emergency doctor system, while campaigning against its reform.

The Lower Austria Health Agency said hospitals already have ombudsman offices for patients and relatives, and that staff can raise concerns through works councils, a digital reporting office for medical and nursing issues, and an anonymous whistleblower platform.