Expert against the idea of a medical Uni in Linz

The health economist Ernest Pichlbauer does not advocate the creation of a medical faculty at the University of Linz. He said that a fourth medical training centre was not necessary and it was a project purely for prestige.

Mr Pichlbauer explained that the problem is that the trained medical doctors would move away from Austria due to bad working conditions.

“We do not manage to offer them attractive jobs after their degrees so that they stay here”, the expert went on. Apparently, a third of the graduates want to go abroad.

Austria has, from a European point of view, the most doctors per capita, Mr Pichlbauer stated. If Austria had the same density of doctors as Germany, only 30,000 instead of 40,000 doctors would remain.

The health economist is sceptical about the costs for a medical faculty. The estimated values need to be seen as estimated values, he emphasised.

However, the University of Linz still considers its own medical faculty to be important and points out to synergies with other facilities.

Gerald Pruckner, professor of economics at the department for health economy at the University of Linz, admitted that the improvement of working conditions for doctors is necessary in order to secure long-term medical care.

Additionally, existing research areas like medical informatics and medical mechatronics at the University of Linz could result in “excellent synergies with the large amount of hospitals around Linz and the many medical technology companies in Upper Austria”.