The two hospitals are intensifying their cooperation in cardiac surgery. New with a shared line.
Omer Dzemali will be chief physician and clinic director in one person from December.
At the end of August, the Zurich Health Department announced a prestigious change in personnel: Omer Dzemali, until then Chief Physician of Cardiac Surgery at the Triemli City Hospital, will become Clinic Director of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) on December 1, 2022. It was said at the time that the two hospitals would work even more closely together in cardiac surgery.
On Thursday it became clear how quickly this advance is taking place. In a joint media release, the University Hospital and Triemli announced that Dzemali would not give up his old job at all, but would instead combine both positions in one person in the future. The 52-year-old will work as the head of the so-called Allianz Cardiac Surgery at both the USZ and the Zurich City Hospital.
Patients should benefit
Nothing should change in the offer for patients. The range of services for planned and emergency surgical heart procedures is still guaranteed at both locations, according to the statement.
Health director Natalie Rickli emphasizes the advantages of the cooperation in the communication. «The merger of the Zurich cardiac surgery makes sense from a medical and business point of view. Especially in specialized medical areas, patients and hospital staff benefit from coordinated, cross-location offers,” the government councilor is quoted as saying.
Andreas Hauri, head of the municipal health department, also supports the project. He speaks of a “forward-looking cooperation model”. The aim is to provide even better patient care.
cooperation despite differences
The fact that the two hospitals want to move closer together in heart surgery is nothing new. Years ago there were plans to intensify the cooperation between the two hospitals. There was even talk of a merger. But it shouldn’t come to that. The reservations were too great, there was talk of cultural differences that made it impossible to simply merge the houses.
Nevertheless, a rapprochement took place. Step by step, individual departments began to work more closely together. Since then, the Triemli and the USZ have used synergies in radio-oncology, and the Waid-Spital set up a university geriatrics network with the university hospital.
The cardiac surgery alliance between the two hospitals has also existed since 2015. With the joint management, the cooperation is now being further intensified. However, there are two exceptions here as well: According to the announcement, the clinics for cardiology and vascular surgery of the two institutions are not part of the cooperation.
Quarrels have not died down
Dzemali’s appointment as super boss comes after years of mudslinging at USZ. In September 2020, the university hospital dismissed the then director of cardiac surgery, Francesco Maisano. This had embellished scientific reports and suppressed conflicts of interest.
With the appointment of Dzemali in the summer, peace should finally return. Born in Macedonia, he has a reputation for being a good surgeon. In any case, he was able to significantly increase the number of patients in the Triemli city hospital.
But the quarrels continued. The finance blog “Inside Paradeplatz” ran a regular campaign against Dzemali and in several articles cast him in a dubious light as a doctor and scientist. Last week, the Tamedia newspapers doubled down and headlined that the university hospital was kicking out the star surgeon Thierry Carrel. Because Dzemali will take over the management of the clinic, they want to get rid of Carrel “as soon as possible”. Neither Dzemali nor Carrel have commented on this so far.
Criticism obviously didn’t hurt you Dzemali. From December he is one of the most powerful physicians in the city of Zurich.