FPÖ proposes private doctor practices in Upper Austrian hospitals
Thursday 10th September 2026 on 15:00 in
Austria
Austria’s FPÖ wants to replace some hospital outpatient services in Upper Austria with private doctor practices, saying patients who do not need acute hospital treatment could be treated there without a co-payment, ORF reported.
The proposal aims to ease pressure on hospital outpatient departments and reduce healthcare costs.
Hospitals run by the Upper Austrian Health Holding record around 1.9 million outpatient visits each year. According to the FPÖ, fewer than 10 percent of patients in emergency departments are potentially life-threatening cases, while around 40 percent could also be treated by doctors outside hospitals.
Under the proposal by Deputy Governor Manfred Haimbuchner of the FPÖ, hospital treatment rooms and diagnostic facilities would also be used for private doctor practices. Patients would still come to the hospital but would first be examined in a practice located before the outpatient department. They would be referred to the hospital department only if hospital treatment was necessary.
The treatment would be funded by social insurance and the provincial government. Social insurance would cover its prescribed share of the private doctor’s fee, while the province would pay the difference, according to the FPÖ. Patients would not have to pay a co-payment.
The FPÖ also cited rising healthcare costs. It expects an ageing population to lead to significantly more treatments and hospital stays in the coming decades.
In addition, the party wants to integrate the night-time family doctor emergency service more closely into hospitals. It also proposed dedicated care wards for patients who no longer need acute treatment but are still waiting for a nursing or rehabilitation place, as well as improvements to hospital discharge management.
NEOS provincial leader Felix Eypeltauer criticised the proposal, saying Haimbuchner was presenting existing tools and new parallel structures as healthcare reform even though he had been part of the provincial government for years as deputy governor.