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After the director, the president is now resigning and the professional association of the medical profession FMH is leaving: the foundation for patient safety is heading into an uncertain future.
A checklist that prevents problematic use of urinary catheters: The Foundation for Patient Safety has been fighting for quality in the healthcare system with projects like this for almost 20 years. The organization is unlikely to carry out projects of this type in the future. Because of a recent change in the law, a third of their budget is gone.
Disappointed director David Schwappach quit his job in December. Now there is another bang: the long-time president of the board of trustees, Dieter Conen, is also leaving. In addition: The FMH, the professional association of doctors, jumps off – the foundation loses an important partner. The new legal situation restricts the foundation too much, according to the FMH at the request of SRF.
«The future of the foundation is pitch black for me»
Patient advocate Flavia Wasserfallen is very concerned about these well-known departures. The foundation is important for patients, for example because it helps to discover treatment errors. “There is still no national reporting system for such errors. In order to set one up, you would need a strong foundation for patient safety,” says Wasserfallen.
The budget melts away, the foundation cannot continue its projects or start new ones because it is not clear what will be paid for.
The top family doctor in Switzerland, Philippe Luchsinger, is alarmed by the events in an interview with SRF. “The future of the foundation is very black for me,” says Luchsinger, whose Association of General Practitioners and Paediatricians Switzerland is still represented on the foundation board. “The budget is melting away, the foundation cannot continue its projects and cannot start new ones because it is not clear what is being paid for.”
General practitioner Philippe Luchsinger criticizes: The Federal Office of Public Health BAG ignored the warning calls from general practitioners and many others in the healthcare sector: “Our warnings were not properly heeded and people watched for too long until they looked for solutions.”
New commission to fix it
The BAG contradicts this. It is important to the BAG and the Federal Council that the foundation continue to play a central role in the implementation of patient safety, says BAG spokesman Jonas Montani. Thanks to the Federal Quality Commission, funding is still secured.
The Federal Council attaches great importance to the foundation being able to draw on the additional funds approved by Parliament.
Regarding the fear that the basic research of the foundation would suffer, he says: “The Federal Council attaches great importance to the foundation being able to use the additional funds approved by Parliament, both for projects and for programs and studies . We are sure that this will strengthen the foundation.”
Search for money continues
The end of the Foundation for Patient Safety – in the opinion of the BAG it does not have to come to that. The organization itself tries to make the best of the situation. After the bang at the top, Urs Brügger will lead the organization on an interim basis.
In the current situation, the foundation lacks the basic funding, we have to finance ourselves through projects.
In an interview with SRF, the health economist says: “In the current situation, the foundation lacks basic funding, we have to finance ourselves through projects. However, we have already financed the first projects through the Federal Quality Commission and are now looking for further financial means.»
So the foundation is far from over the mountain: it has to continue looking for financial resources – and for a new leadership. So that patient safety becomes the priority again.