Luxury clinic in Saanen – cutting-edge medicine for the super-rich – population receives consultation – News

International sponsors are building a new hospital in Saanen, while the basic needs of the population are in jeopardy.

“Gstaad International Healthcare” wants to build a 5-star luxury clinic in Saanen. Patients from all over the world should travel to the Bernese Oberland to be treated in the luxury hospital. Diagnosis, check-ups and rehabilitation are planned.

Saanen Airport is close by, and the luxury hotels in Gstaad are within taxi distance. However, recovery from operations and treatments is also possible in the planned hospital – care should be provided at the highest level: with bellhops, a shoe shine service and pajamas are also provided. At least that is the internationally valid standard in a 5-star hotel, which the clinic wants to offer.

Health center for the villagers

The clinic wants to lure patients with big names to Saanen. “The most important partner is Johns Hopkins Medicine International,” says Markus Iseli from Gstaad International Healthcare. Another partner is said to be the medical device manufacturer Siemens.

We have to secure what we can.

Construction of the clinic is scheduled to begin in 2025. A three-digit million amount is to be invested. The community assembly of the 7,000-strong village of Saanen recently said yes to the luxury clinic. On the condition that basic care is available for the population in the hospital.

Legend:

The old hospital in Saanen is to be replaced by a luxury 5-star hospital.

SRF/Matthias Baumer

A health center for the general public is to be integrated. General practitioners for the people in the village, top doctors for the super-rich from abroad. “The financial resources of the project serve the general public,” says Mayor Toni von Grünigen. And: “We have to secure what we can”. Because Saanen and the entire Simmental are also struggling with a shortage of family doctors, emigration and an aging population.

Legend:

A health center in the luxury hospital is intended to ensure basic care for the population.

Keystone/Gaetan Bally

The nearest hospital is in Zweisimmen. The basic supply is on the brink there.

The hospital operator, Spital Thun AG, wants to get rid of the old, unprofitable hospital and wants to take it over with a specially founded company from the region. But the seven affiliated communities have not yet voted on their participation. “Too many questions were unanswered, such as whether the project could be implemented at all due to the lack of skilled workers,” says the mayor of Zweisimmen, Beatrice Zeller.

Legend:

The Zweisimmen hospital is getting on in years and is unprofitable. If no solution is found, it will probably be closed.

SRF/Matthias Baumer

With consequences: talks with investors had to be broken off. Actually, the company would have wanted to take over the Zweisimmen hospital at the beginning of next year and thus secure the medical care of the valley residents with family doctors, old people’s homes, a birth center and hospital. “If the project is not accepted by the population, the hospital will probably not be preserved,” says Zeller.

In critical situations, you no longer have an outpatient emergency to go to. General practitioners in the Simmental region therefore warn that without a hospital, basic care would collapse.

This should not bother the super-rich, who land at the airport to have their ailments treated in the luxury clinic.