Vienna Medical Chamber warns of training bottleneck

Vienna’s Medical Chamber says medical graduates face waits of up to 18 months for a place in mandatory basic training, with around 300 places available each year for nearly 1,000 graduates, ORF reported.

The six-month programme is the first stage of training after medical school and is intended to give doctors basic clinical skills in surgical and non-surgical specialties, as well as experience of hospital procedures. It was reduced from nine months on August 1.

Although Vienna has 829 basic training positions that could be filled, only about 300 are currently occupied, said Bernhard Schönthoner, head of the chamber’s section for trainee doctors. Hospitals facing spending cuts may remove one or more of these positions rather than dismiss a specialist, he said. The training posts are refilled every six months.

The shortfall risks pushing graduates abroad, said Lisa Leutgeb, deputy head of the chamber’s section for employed doctors. The Medical University of Vienna and Sigmund Freud Private University together produce 974 graduates a year. Germany and Switzerland do not have a basic training programme, the article said.

The chamber does not want to abolish the programme, citing high satisfaction among doctors who complete it. Vice-president Eduardo Maldonado-Gonzalez said it could instead become voluntary, allowing graduates to start specialist training directly if they did not take up a basic training place.

Other proposals include requiring hospitals to budget formally for training positions or setting a legally mandated number linked to graduate numbers. The chamber also called for more transparent waiting lists, nationwide coordination and the possibility of incorporating some specialist training into the practical year of medical school. Leutgeb said the government should provide a reliable assessment of how many doctors are needed.