Vienna (OTS/SK) – In the National Council on Wednesday, the SPÖ made care and the plight of employees in the nursing professions the main issue. SPÖ social spokesman Josef Muchitsch has submitted his party’s urgent motion to end the nursing shortage, start a training offensive and improve working conditions. Chancellor Nehammer (ÖVP), to whom the urgent motion was addressed, preferred not to appear and was represented by State Secretary Plakolm. Numerous employees from the nursing professions followed the debate from the visitors’ gallery. ****
The SPÖ social spokesman referred to Health Austria’s forecasts, according to which the number of people who need care will almost double by 2050. This must also apply to the number of nursing staff. However, given the current training numbers, the gap will continue to grow. The SPÖ is therefore in favor of a training offensive. Central to this is pay like in police training: 2,300 gross 14 times a year. “What applies to training in public security must also apply to training in social security,” says Muchitsch.
Muchitsch regrets that nothing comes from the ÖVP. He read the chapter on care in Nehammer’s “Austria Plan”. There are five lines with the sole idea of bringing more foreign nursing staff into the country. “The only undercut is the FPÖ,” Muchitsch continued. Because the FPÖ’s idea is only that employees should do more overtime.
There is a lack of staff in hospitals and long-term care. In hospitals, the shortage of nursing staff directly affects the operating rooms because operations have to be postponed or simply canceled. Thousands of hospital beds and beds in nursing homes are empty because there is a lack of staff, explained Muchitsch.
The extent to which nursing staff are under strain is shown by the fact that 45 percent are thinking about quitting because the pressure is increasing. “The staff are passionate and passionate about it, but the stress is getting bigger and bigger, and many are wondering whether they will last in the job until they retire,” said Muchitsch. The SPÖ’s proposal: Work in nursing should be recognized as hard work and included in the heavy work ordinance.
“The health system in this country has been collapsing since 2017. This would not have happened with an SPÖ in government responsibility,” summarized Muchitsch. Apart from empty promises, nothing has come from the government for the employees. “Nothing is happening that will reduce the staff shortage,” says Muchitsch.
“The key is more staff. Employees deserve to be able to plan their work and their rest. There is no longer any ability to plan,” says the SPÖ social spokesman. And: “The dispute over jurisdiction is getting on people’s nerves. Care belongs in federal hands, where people have the same demands, where the non-profit organization has to be put before profit.”
From the SPÖ’s point of view, what is needed are comprehensive, sustainable reforms, as the SPÖ proposal for the future provides and as the SPÖ did during its time in government. Muchitsch recalled the SPÖ’s achievements from the care allowance project of the century, 24-hour care, care leave, social insurance for caring relatives to the abolition of care recourse.
The SPÖ proposals at a glance:
In its urgent motion, the SPÖ calls on the federal government to “immediately launch a comprehensive nursing staff offensive and in particular to take the following measures:
* Increase training places by at least 3,000 additional places and provide financing for this
* University of Applied Sciences tuition fees for this field of study are covered by the federal government
* Payment of a training salary (including social security) and climate ticket for all trainees – based on the model of police students
* Ensure job guarantee after completing training
* Improve working conditions, in particular through personnel requirements planning, roster security, gradual reduction of working hours, consistent additional vacation week
* Open access to the hard labor pension.”
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