"Healthacross for the future"

The region around Gmünd and České Velenice is a perfect example of how cross-border cooperation makes life easier for people. The Gmünd clinic is right by the border – the next emergency ambulance on the Czech side is more than 30 km away and the next hospital 60 km away.

As part of the "Healthacross for the future" initiative, cross-border patient care at the Gmünd clinical centre in collaboration with the South Bohemian region will be continued and expanded to include inpatient treatment. A cross-border Gmünd/České Velenice health centre is also being planned.

The proposal for the project was submitted to the Austria-Czech Republic 2014-2020 Interreg V-A Programme and approved in autumn 2017.

Specialisations

• Cross-border patient care
• Inpatient treatment of Czech patients at the Gmünd clinical centre
• Testing the feasibility of sharing medical services between Austria and the Czech Republic
• Sharing of knowledge between specialists in the health care sector
• Planning and implementation of a cross-border health centre

In 2008, Lower Austria established the "healthacross" project in collaboration with the South Bohemian region.

In the border region of Lower Austria and the South Bohemian region, the "shared" city of Gmünd/České Velenice makes the need for cooperation especially clear. The next emergency ambulance is 18 km away, and the next hospital 60 km. The Gmünd clinical centre is just a few hundred metres away from the border. The main focus of this project was the development of guidelines and a pilot study for cross-border health care facilities.

Results:

• Report I: Guidelines for the cross-border provision of health care
• Report II: Pilot study for cross-border inpatient and outpatient cooperation in the Gmünd and České Velenice area
• The first major cross-border emergency drill with the involvement of the Gmünd clinical centre
• Language courses
• Dictionary for the emergency services

Lower Austria ran a follow-up project, "Healthacross in Practice", from 01/01/2012 to 31/03/2014 in collaboration with the South Bohemian region.

Once the legal and organisational requirements had been addressed, the main focus of the project was the practical implementation of cross-border health care provision, as well as working on any issues that could arise as a result of patients moving between Lower Austria and the Czech Republic. To begin with, a defined number of Czech patients received outpatient care at the Gmünd clinical centre. During the preparatory stage, it was necessary to agree a specific range of services and set outpatient times.

The pilot project was extremely successful, the services on offer were very sought-after and patients made the most of them.

Outpatient treatment of Czech patients continued even after the pilot project ended.

This project was chosen from 300 projects in the health care sector as one of the Best Practice examples at the Alpbach Forum 2015.

More information: http://projekt.healthacross.eu