LKH-Univ. Klinikum Graz Careers, Salaries & Jobs

The LKH-Universitätsklinikum Graz is one of Austria's three public university hospitals, alongside Vienna and Innsbruck, and has been linked with the Medical University of Graz since 2002.

It is owned by the State of Styria and run by the Steiermärkische Krankenanstaltengesellschaft (KAGes), which describes itself as Styria's largest employer with more than 19,000 staff.

Its key figures, published in August 2024, show 1,554 planned beds, 18 university clinics and 35 clinical departments, 71,065 inpatient admissions and 3,387 births. It employed 7,469 state staff, including 909 doctors and 3,936 nursing staff, plus 627 doctors employed by the federal government through the Medical University.

KAGes runs an international recruiting team for nurses. Its information for international applicants explains the difference between EU admission and nostrification for non-EU qualifications, says non-physician health professions need German at B2 and doctors at C1, and gives the recruiting team's email for nurses.

Like the rest of Austria, Graz needs nostrification and GBR registration for nurses from outside the EU, and nostrification, the ÖÄK German exam and the Ärzteliste for doctors. Allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and radiographers also register in the GBR after recognition, and midwives register with the Austrian Midwives' Board.

Run by

Steiermärkische Krankenanstaltengesellschaft m.b.H. (KAGes), owned by the State of Styria

Leadership

• Dr. Bernd Leinich, Betriebsdirektor
• Ass. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Köle, Ärztlicher Direktor
• Mag. Gabriele Möstl, Pflegedirektorin

• All medical disciplines

  The hospital houses every medical specialty and is the central hospital for Styria and the university hospital for southern Austria.

• Intensive care

  15 intensive care units and 179 planned intensive care beds, including intermediate care.

• Ophthalmology

  5,281 cataract operations in the published key figures.

• Obstetrics

  3,387 births in the published key figures.

• Cardiology and stroke care

  2,497 cardiac catheter angiographies and 621 stroke cases in the published key figures.

• Paediatrics

  University clinics for paediatrics and adolescent medicine and for paediatric surgery.

• KAGes, which runs the hospital, has had an international recruiting unit since November 2022. In 2024 it reported recruiting 137 nurses from countries including Tunisia, Colombia, the Philippines, Serbia, Bosnia, India, Ukraine and Greece, with 61 already working in its hospitals and 72 taking language courses in their home countries.
• KAGes asks for a university degree that can be nostrified in Austria and German at B1 to obtain the Red-White-Red Card. After arrival, recruits go through an intensive three-month onboarding with further German and professional preparation. Its information for international applicants invites trained nurses to contact [email protected].
• KAGes explains that people trained abroad need their qualification checked before they can work in a non-physician health profession: EU qualifications are admitted, while qualifications from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland go through nostrification. For nurses it points to FH Joanneum, the Styrian university of applied sciences, for nostrification information.
• KAGes says non-physician health professions need German at B2 and doctors need German at C1, and that non-EU citizens need a Red-White-Red Card to work in Austria. In August 2023 the hospital welcomed six registered nurses from Tunisia, part of 36 recruited through a pilot project since autumn 2022. They already had B1 German, which the hospital says was a requirement for a post there, and started special training in nursing and medical German for work in surgery, internal medicine and the children's centre.
• There is no recruitment programme for doctors. KAGes links doctors to the Austrian Medical Chamber's pages on recognition, the Ärzteliste and the German exam.

• Doctors with degrees from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland need nostrification at a medical university, the ÖÄK German language exam unless exempt (candidates need a B2 certificate and the exam is set at least at C1), and entry in the Ärzteliste. KAGes says doctors need German at C1.

• Nurses need nostrification (or EU admission) and registration in the Gesundheitsberuferegister, which requires B2 German for registered nurses and B1 for nursing assistants.

• Non-EU citizens need a Red-White-Red Card.

• Austria's 2026 shortage occupation list includes registered nurses (Dipl. Gesundheits- und Krankenpfleger/-in), nursing assistants (Pflegefachassistenz and Pflegeassistenz) and doctors in general practice and many specialties. The usual permit is the Red-White-Red Card for skilled workers in shortage occupations: you need a binding job offer paid at least the legal or collective agreement minimum and 55 of 90 points. It is generally issued for 24 months and the fee is €218.

• For regulated professions such as nursing and medicine, formal recognition of your qualification is required. Check your own case with the Austrian representation and migration.gv.at; this is not legal advice.

1. 1

   Contact the recruiting team

   Trained nurses can write to KAGes's international recruiting team at [email protected].
2. 2

   Learn German

   At least B1 for a nursing post at Uniklinikum Graz and B2 to register as a registered nurse; C1 for doctors.
3. 3

   Start nostrification

   Nurses should start with FH Joanneum's nostrification information; doctors with a medical university and the Austrian Medical Chamber.
4. 4

   Apply on the KAGes portal

   Apply online at karriere.kages.at, choosing the site (LKH-Univ. Klinikum Graz) and professional group. Apply separately for each site.
5. 5

   Register

   Nurses register in the GBR; doctors enter the Ärzteliste after the German exam.
6. 6

   Get your permit

   With a job offer, apply for the Red-White-Red Card.