HEALTH CENTRE SETS NEW STANDARDS
Monday, 16 December 2019
At the beginning of November, the Benedictine Abbey of Admont opened a health centre that ensures medical care for an entire region with its comprehensive range of services.
Many years of intensive preparations and negotiations were necessary before Admont Abbey was able to open the first health centre for the population of the Admont-Gesäuse region on 11 November 2019. From now on, general practitioners, specialists, therapists and medical professionals will offer their services in a specially adapted building on the grounds of the Benedictine monastery. In order to provide the population with a particularly wide range of services, some practices are operated according to the time-share principle. This type of shared practice allows several doctors to use the same premises at different times. "It is important to us not only to maintain basic medical care in our region, but to improve it in the long term," emphasises Admont Abbey's Economic Director Franz Pichler.
Boosting immigration
As the project sponsor, Admont Abbey not only undertook to pre-finance the entire construction costs, but also to bear the risk of rent losses. Pichler explains why the Benedictine monastery has nevertheless realised the new health centre as follows: "This expansion of basic medical care will hopefully invite families to make this the centre of their lives. For the region, an influx means more qualified workers, pupils for our school and ultimately a revaluation. The health centre is therefore an important building block for the positive future of the region."
945 years of regional development
Admont Abbey is not only investing in the region with its new health centre. The Benedictine monastery has been an important employer and operator of charitable organisations ever since the monastery was founded. There are now over 500 employees working in the various abbey businesses. The educational mission is also taken very seriously, as Franz Pichler emphasises. Around 550 pupils currently attend Admont Abbey Grammar School, in which over 6 million euros have been invested in recent years alone. "We are trying to strengthen the regional infrastructure in order to counteract emigration," says the economic director. Tourism development should also help with this. Following the opening of the Abbey Museum around 15 years ago, Admont Abbey has once again taken the initiative to further boost tourism in the region with the construction of the "Spirodom" hotel.
