SPÖ says planned cuts to emergency doctor bases could worsen care

Austria’s Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) in Lower Austria says a planned reorganisation of 11 emergency doctor bases could worsen patient care, citing an expert report commissioned by the party, ORF reported.

The 21-page report by German emergency medicine specialist Matthias Fischer says reducing the number of bases would increase doctors’ response times. Fischer, who chairs the Association of Southwest German Emergency Doctors and is involved in emergency services reforms in Baden-Württemberg, said research covering about 100,000 resuscitation patients found that the arrival time of both the first rescue vehicle and the emergency doctor team affects survival chances.

Fischer said emergency doctors remain necessary in severe cases, including cardiac arrests, traumatic brain injuries and strokes. Paramedics play an important role but cannot fully replace doctors’ expertise in these situations, he said. In Germany, paramedics complete three years of training and may carry out certain procedures under clear protocols and medical supervision.

Fischer said Baden-Württemberg was collecting data before making decisions about reducing emergency doctor bases, and that similar data was needed in Lower Austria. He said the current response time for emergency doctors in the state was already longer than the figure measured in Germany’s worst-performing state, and that closing more bases would cause further delays.

He said he lacked key information for a comprehensive assessment, including response times for the first rescue vehicle, the frequency of bystander and telephone-assisted resuscitation, and the number of first-responder deployments. Those elements help make the emergency response chain work, he said, but cannot replace a rapidly arriving rescue service and emergency doctor. “The first step towards that is transparency,” he said.

SPÖ Lower Austria leader Sven Hergovich said the report backed his opposition to the changes. He said he would submit it to the state government before making it fully available to the public, and argued that the equal level of care set out in the health plan was not being maintained.

Hergovich said changes to the emergency response system were possible, but that supporting measures would take years to implement. He pointed to the need for three-year paramedic training similar to Germany’s, which would require a new federal law. The full rollout of 86 RTW-C bases, staffed by the most highly qualified paramedics, is planned for 2030, he said.

Whether the reorganisation will begin on 1 April 2027 remains uncertain. Health councillor Eva Prischl said in late October that the plan would be evaluated. The Austrian Society for Emergency and Disaster Medicine has been commissioned to provide additional expertise. The emergency dispatch centre Notruf 144 said it has extensive operational and quality data available to state officials and political decision-makers, and that the response time of the full emergency response should be considered rather than the emergency doctor’s arrival time alone.