Marian ambulance
The Caritas Marienambulanz outpatient clinic in Graz is a facility for initial and basic medical care for people with and without health insurance as well as for people who cannot overcome the threshold into the existing health system .
description
Since it opened in April 1999, the Marienambulanz has offered low- threshold general medical primary care for people who have no health insurance, who live in Austria without a legal residence permit , but also for insured persons who, for personal reasons (such as alcohol and drug addiction , shame, desire by anonymity can not overcome bad experiences, lack of knowledge, language barriers) the threshold into the public health system.
Low threshold means that patients can come to the general medical consultation without an appointment, that no e-card is required, that language barriers are broken down with the support of volunteer interpreters , that everyone is treated in the same respectful manner and that medication is given if necessary. In 2017, 2421 patients were treated. 33% had no health insurance.
offer
In the case of the Marian ambulance, needs-based care means, above all, interdisciplinary, target group-oriented care with a significantly reduced risk of incorrect, over and / or undersupply compared to other care facilities. The offer consists of one
- General medical consultation that takes place daily, one a week
- Women's consultation hour , one
- psychiatric consultation , one
- Diabetes consultation , one
- Hypertension consultation hour ,
- and social work counseling twice a week, one each month
- dermatological consultation , one
- orthopedic consultation hours and
- Physiotherapy together.
For those people who cannot make the way to the Marian ambulance themselves, there are additional offers. Follow-up means that the patients are cared for directly in the places where they are. The
- Rolling ambulance is an ambulance bus that visits emergency sleeping places and public places in Graz on a weekly basis in order to provide medical treatment for the local people. The
- Contact shop and street work in the drug sector provide outreach medical advice and care.
Specialists from different medical fields treat uninsured patients free of charge in the outpatient clinic and in their own premises.
history
At the end of 1990, with the large number of people fleeing from Kosovo, the increase in asylum seekers from Africa and the considerable number of uninsured people from Austria, the need for low-threshold medical care increased. A retired general practitioner began treating visitors to the Caritas Marienstüberl free of charge. The consequence of this resulted in the opening of the Marienambulanz, a 44 m² ordination in the premises of the Barmherzigen Sisters (Mariengasse 12) with the Caritas Diocese Graz-Seckau as the sponsor. Since then, the Marienambulanz has grown steadily and in 2006 the status of the outpatient clinic was recognized.
In 2013, the Caritas Marienambulanz moved from Keplerstraße 82, where it had been housed for a long time, to the new premises at Mariengasse 24.
Awards
2017 SALUS - Styrian Quality Award for Health
2006 Christine Anderwald Human Rights Prize
2005 SocialMarie
literature
- Anderwald, Christine / Bruckner, Cornelia / Sprenger, Martin (2009): History of the Marienambulanz outpatient clinic. In: Rasky, Eva (ed.): Health has the right to stay. Migration and health. Vienna: Facultas Verlags- und Buchandels AG. Pp. 226-238.
Web links