Quality in the health sector is more important than staffing!
Debate lacks quality and personnel standards.
Hospital reform
Gerald Mjka, health spokesman and deputy chairman of the trade union vida, comments on different statements on the restructuring of the health system. Results must be measured by what really improves for patients.
"Since we are committed to improvements for patients and employees, the debate currently falls short. If we tackle such a major reform, it should also be used to establish quality and staffing standards that ensure high-quality care for patients in the long term."Gesundheitssprecher und stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Gewerkschaft vida
He is referring to well-known structural problems in the hospital system, to which vida has already pointed out several times. In addition, it is important that all partners – including employees – are involved on an equal footing," emphasizes Mjka.
Reform needs quality and personnel standards
Employees in hospitals repeatedly report high workloads as a result of understaffing. A central problem is the lack of a uniform legal staffing ratio that determines how many employees must be deployed per patient.
Fight for every improvement
The collective agreement negotiations in the order hospitals of Upper Austria, which dragged on from September 2025 to the end of March, clearly show how urgently employees need relief - and how difficult it is to enforce it. Only after eight rounds of negotiations and two strikes were the hospital employees promised 15 hours of additional free time per year. "The collective bargaining negotiations in the Upper Austrian religious hospitals are a painful example of the fact that any improvement in working conditions has to be fought hard for," Mjka recalls.
Relief for employees
In summary, vida therefore assesses the proposal for a uniform service and remuneration system as fundamentally positive. "But the system of collective agreements cannot be shaken. At the same time, effective measures are finally needed to relieve the burden on employees," Mjka clarifies in conclusion. A training booster and attractive working conditions that allow our colleagues to do high-quality work are the prerequisites for this.
