Hospitals and psychiatric institutions X The working conditions for personnel in the health sector shall be improved in order to make filling vacant positions easier. X The night shifts in the nursing area shall be staffed with qualified personnel in order to ensure adequate care of the patients at all times. 2.2.7 Long hospitalisation without medical need On a visit to the Ottakring Hospital, formerly known as Wilhelminen Hospital, the NPM generally addressed the problem of so-called “long-term patients” whose release is considerably delayed for organisational reasons. The occupancy of acute beds with patients who could be released from a medical point of view means a massive restriction in the quality of life for those affected. High cost On an organisational level, extended hospitalisation causes a reduction in the available bed capacity and thus financial losses, which result in an additional economic burden. According to a report by the Austrian Court of Audit from 2015, a hospital bed costs an average of EUR 850 per day and one patient day in a municipal institution an average of EUR 270. Long waiting times for a place in a nursing home The average waiting time for a place in a nursing home was between 8.4 and 35 days between January and April 2019 depending on the department. In total, 139 patients waited an average of 21.1 days during this time (time from application to release) for a suitable place in a nursing home. The reasons are manifold and are attributable to both medically and organisationally related delays in release (e.g. application for adult guardianship, refusal from a specific nursing home, waiting for documents, required approval of funding). Patients who were transferred from the casualty department to the Baumgarten nursing home after three-months of geriatric rehabilitation were thus sent back to the hospital if they had no follow-up accommodation and care options. The residents of apartments for senior citizens are also refused after a stay in hospital if there are no free places in the nursing wards at the houses of the Non-profit Fund for Viennese Senior Citizens Homes (Kuratorium Wiener Pensionisten-Wohnhäuser) because of the amount of care they need. Foreign patients 61 There is a similar problem for foreign patients in need of care, for whom the Vienna Social Fund does not bear the cost of a nursing home due to their lack of a claim to social benefits. If return to the respective country of origin is not possible for medical or other reasons, release from hospital is de facto impossible.