Medical Chamber: 18,000 physicians to reach retirement age in the next ten years

Despite this record number, the chamber warns that the mere headcount is misleading. For example, more than 6,100 doctors are still professionally active even after the age of 65. In addition, average working hours have fallen in recent years, and part-time models are increasingly in demand.

Declining working hours despite record numbers

As Stärker explained, a doctor today no longer corresponds to the full-time equivalent of twenty years ago: "Ein Kopf vor 20 Jahren war mehr Vollzeit-Äquivalent, als es heute ist." As a result, the overall balance of available work capacity has declined, even though the number of employed people is nominally growing.

Specialists and panel doctors: A structural divide

The largest group within the medical profession consists of specialists, with around 29,900 memberships. Just under 3,400 of them work as panel specialists, while around 9,200 have no panel contract and therefore work predominantly privately or in elective doctors' practices. Among general practitioners, the second-largest group, the picture is reversed: here, just under 4,200 panel doctors are offset by almost 2,700 without a panel contract.

Foreign doctors prop up the system

Another key point of the statistics concerns the origin of physicians working in Austria. More than 9,000 foreign doctors are currently professionally active in the country. Around 3,200 doctors from other countries stand alongside 7,002 Austrians. The largest group among foreign doctors are Germans with just under 3,900, followed by Italians, Hungarians, and Slovaks.

This development has immediate consequences for care. Since many retirements are pending and at the same time less full-time work is being done, a noticeable gap threatens particularly in rural regions and among panel doctors. The chamber points out that without targeted measures in training and working conditions, the care of the population will be at risk in the medium term.

Chamber President Johannes Steinhart has already described the situation as critical several times in recent months. He is calling, among other things, for better framework conditions to attract young doctors to work in Austria and to retain them in the system over the long term. The rising proportion of part-time workers must also be taken into account in planning.

Demands of the Medical Chamber

From the chamber's perspective, the rising number of foreign doctors does show that Austria remains attractive for international physicians. However, it alone cannot close the gap created by retirements and reduced working hours. Without additional training capacity and better working conditions, demand cannot be met.

For the coming years, the chamber therefore expects competition for medical staff to intensify. The combination of retirement due to age, a growing part-time rate, and rising demand for health services poses one of the greatest challenges to the system in decades.

Political pressure to act

Structural questions are also coming more into focus. The divide between panel and elective doctors, particularly among specialists, points to differences in care. Since only around a third of specialists hold a panel contract, many patients either turn to overloaded panel practices or pay for treatment themselves.

The chamber sees the statistics as a clear mandate for action to politicians. Measures to make the medical profession more attractive, to relieve full-time staff, and to secure local care must be implemented quickly, according to the chamber office. Otherwise, a supply bottleneck threatens in the coming ten years that could only be compensated for with foreign personnel or through service restrictions.

Overall, the annual statistics make clear that although the Austrian healthcare system is staffed at record levels, the underlying work performance is declining. The age structure and changing working time models make the future need for new full-time staff appear significantly higher than the headcounts suggest.

The chamber announced that it will continue to monitor the development and provide regular updates on the state of medical care in the coming years. It expects concrete steps from policymakers to strengthen training, promote the return of doctors from abroad, and make working conditions at home more attractive.

According to Chamber Director Stärker, the current record number of doctors by no means means the situation is relaxed. On the contrary: the combination of a retirement wave, the part-time trend, and growing demand for medical services will make the coming ten years a decisive phase for ensuring medical care in Austria.