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The army recruits more soldiers to support the cantons. The head of an ambulance service criticizes that they could do more in civilian terms to fight Covid. The army justifies itself.
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- Daniel Graf
- Joel Probst
The paramedics did important work in the civilian health system.
20min / Marco Zangger
In the vaccination center they would now have to do mundane work.
20min / Simon Glauser
Another hospital battalion is being mobilized to support the cantons in the fight against Corona.
The head of a private ambulance service criticizes the fact that paramedics, who make an important contribution to the civilian health system, are torn from their jobs.
“Instead, they now have to do mundane tasks in the army that someone without medical training could do,” he says.
The army justifies itself: Without a certain number of medical specialists, the operations could not be carried out.
Instead of moving corona patients who rely on oxygen between hospitals and clinics, two paramedics have to go into military service these days. Together with around 120 other members of the army, the army has called them up for the “Corona Assistance Service”.
For her boss, who wants to remain anonymous, this is simply “insane”: “The hospital battalion that the army is now mobilizing consists largely of health workers,” he says. The consequence of the mobilization: “The army is tearing medical professionals out of their civilian jobs. The health workers are currently urgently needed in civilian operations. “
“Better to move people in without a systemically important job”
His two employees are expected to have to move to Stans, among other things to do work at the vaccination center. But the paramedics are not even allowed to vaccinate with their training: “Instead, they have to take on mundane tasks for which no medical training is required. The army should rather call in soldiers who do not have a systemically important job. “
Right now, his company is reliant on every worker: “We move around 6500 patients between hospitals and clinics every year. With the high number of cases, we are currently extremely busy. ” Every failure hurts.
Dispensation requests denied
The army apparently does not understand this: “Both paramedics have applied for a dispensation. Both were rejected without a reason, ”said the head of the rescue service. In response to repeated inquiries, the army finally sent him a list with the title “Overview Dispensation of Medical Specialists” without comment.
In it, the officials record which professions are dispensed from the assistance service and which are not. Only two types of professions out of 41 listed are in the “red” category and are therefore completely exempt from Corona use: “Intensive care and anesthetists” and “Emergency doctors and doctors in the emergency departments”. The remaining 39 medical professions are all subject to compulsory service (see below).
The majority of the medical professions, such as “hospital doctors” and “general practitioners” as well as “paramedics”, “specialist in anesthesia, intensive care, emergency care (HF)” and all nursing professions can be found on the list of the army in the “blue” category. Members of the armed forces in these professions have to provide assistance as a matter of principle. The list does, however, state that the Army Personnel Department should issue a “generous dispensation before or after enlistment”.
For the head of the rescue service, this classification of professions is absurd: “It is obvious that our healthcare system is currently particularly dependent on medical staff being able to do their job.” The assessment of the requests seems arbitrary to him: “If there were indeed generous dispensing, my two employees would have had to be released from duty.”
Army spokesman Daniel Reist defends the approach: “With the list, we look at who is indispensable in the workplace. In order to be able to carry out the missions, however, we also need medical staff and nursing staff. Here mainly medical soldiers who do not come from the health service are used. ”
“Need a minimum of specialist staff”
The army wrote to a total of 7,639 members, and by the end of the year 1,110 requests for dispensation had been submitted. «Of these, 548 were approved and 489 rejected; 73 applications are still being processed, ”says Reist. The two paramedics are free to submit a reconsideration request.
“90 percent of the members of the army in medical formations do not work as health professionals in the civilian health system,” says Reist. “But it needs a minimal staffing of medical specialists.”
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