Anti-discrimination The result of this investigation was that there is no standardised search option for barrier-free doctor’s practices and it is often difficult to find information about them. The search options vary depending on the medical chambers of the Laender and public social insurance carriers. It is not possible to search for barrier-free doctor’s practices on some websites. What is also doubtful is how comprehensive and valid the respective survey results are. For example, the search for doctor’s practices without stairs in a Viennese district returned eight results at arztbarrierefrei.at, whereas the same search returned three results on the website of the Vienna Medical Chamber. The degree to which different levels of barrier-free accessibility (ramps, sign language, etc.) are considered is also questionable. This condition is necessary in order to be of use for persons with disabilities of all types – persons with restricted movement, persons with impaired sight or hearing, persons with limited cognitive abilities, etc. Improved information When confronted with this result, both the Austrian Medical Chamber and the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions announced that they would improve the information and, in particular, place a link to http://www.arztbarrierefrei.at on the respective websites. Barrier-free accessibility to all doctor‘s practices remain objective This is an important step. But what is vital, is to install barrier-free accessibility as quickly as possible and make all medical facilities and doctor’s practices accessible to persons with all types of disability insofar as possible. According to the UN CRPD, access for persons with disabilities to health care services must be the same in terms of scope and quality as for those with no disability. The period of grace for providing barrier-free accessibility in public areas expired at the beginning of 2016. The lack of barrier-free accessibility is not only discriminating, it also restricts the free choice of doctor. A low number of barrier-free doctor’s practices means that persons with disabilities can rarely consult a doctor of their choice or they can expect to have to pay additional charges for treatment if a doctor with barrier-free alternatives does not have a contract with public health insurance agencies. For this reason, we appeal to all decision-makers to find a remedy and to contribute to improving this situation. Barrier-free accessibility as requirement for contracted doctor‘s practices 36 The AOB is thus making an effort to standardise barrier-free accessibility as an obligatory tendering requirement for a contract doctor’s practice in the Ranking Criteria Regulation (“Reihungskriterien-Verordnung”).

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents