I am Andreas Weinmüller, deputy director of Professional Health Services of the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Vienna and I would like to tell you a story.

Konrad is 65 years old and has not been very fortunate during his life, possibly because of his own doings. When he was a young man, he did pretty well, managing to make a decent living. But that was in the years of our economic boom. Then, after the introduction of plans for industrial rationalization, he lost his job. He found another one, but that didn’t last very long. And then another, which lasted for an even shorter time.

The periods in which he was unemployed grew longer and longer. He didn’t give up but increasingly he would be told, “No thanks, you are too old. No thanks, you don’t have sufficient qualifications.” Konrad could no longer pay his rent and, after several extensions and a final rent request, the landlord evicted him and Konrad became a homeless person, his life going into an ever downward spiral. In the summers, he slept on a park bench. Then the autumn came with its foggy days and, followed by the freezing cold of winter. A man who once shaved every day now had an unkempt beard and wore dirty clothes. Children pointed at him, adults avoided him. He suffered from the cold. He had trouble breathing and increasingly he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

Konrad was afraid to go to his former family doctor. He feared the secretary wouldn’t even let him in the door. But one night the pain got so bad that he could hardly stand it. He was running a fever and sweating profusely. With the last of his strength, Konrad dragged himself to the Fatebenefratelli hospital and rang the night bell. The night porter opened the door and immediately called the duty nurse of the so-called “Armenambulanz”, the clinic for the poor that is inside the Fatebenefratelli’s Vienna hospital.

Konrad was asked to wait in the clinic’s waiting room. He was not alone. A woman was waiting with her elderly father who seems in a bad way, A very young mother held a small baby girl with a drawn face. A grandmother come from afar to visit her grandchildren, possibly for the last time, fell ill and has come to the hospital accompanied by the entire family. A variety of languages are spoken by people with tired, worried expressions, They are all asking themselves, will the doctor be able to see me and to help? Will he want money?

But the attending nurse asks no one what they are doing there. Instead, in a kind and gentle manner, she goes around taking down everyone’s data so that she can arrange appointments with the appropriate specialists. One by one the patients are called and taken in to see a doctor, No one is asked if he or she has insurance. Everyone will receive care.       Now it is Konrad’s turn and the diagnosis is immediate: hospitalization.

In just a few days, Konrad was feeling better. “You came just in time”, the doctor told him. Showered and shaved, Konrad seems like another person. When the time comes for him to be discharged, the head of the department has a surprise for Konrad: new trousers, socks and a warm winter jacket. The jacket is a little too big but it has lots of pockets and this is something Konrad really appreciates.