Emergency services in Berlin are set to get a respite
Berlin Pushes Ahead with Rescue Service Law Reform
The black-red coalition government in Berlin is driving forward with a reform of the rescue service law, aiming to strengthen prevention and focus on the core tasks of emergency rescue and emergency transport.
The draft for this reform, recently approved by the black-red Senate, outlines several key changes. One of the main objectives is to strengthen preventive measures, with a focus on intervening before patients become emergencies. This will be achieved by expanding the offer of first aid courses.
In 2024, there were almost half a million deployments in the rescue service, an increase of nearly 21,000 from the previous year. This increase is partly attributed to demographic change, with an increasing number of older individuals requiring medical help. To address this, the new law will enable the fire department's rescue service to categorize emergencies, with the central call number 19222 being used more strongly for ambulance transport in the future, aiming to relieve the rescue service.
Not every emergency reported is an urgency where every second counts. Urgency level 1, such as heart attacks or strokes, requires immediate response, but urgency level 5 allows for the involvement of other services like acute care or psychiatric emergency services. The State Protection Officer Karsten Homrighausen announced that in the future, health service centers other than the emergency dispatch center 112 will be used for non-emergency call deployments, but the specific health service agencies were not explicitly named.
The changes in the law are also intended to help prevent emergencies. By strengthening prevention and health literacy, the hope is that self-help skills can help prevent the rescue service from being called more frequently. The state parliament must deal with and pass the law for it to become effective.
Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) announced the approval of the draft, stating that the goal of the reform is to allow the rescue service to focus on its core tasks of emergency rescue and emergency transport. The preventive rescue service will be strengthened, ensuring that interventions are made before patients become emergencies.
In 2024, the fire department could refer almost 40,000 such deployments to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. This move is expected to further relieve the rescue service and ensure that resources are directed towards emergencies that truly require immediate attention.
The reform of the rescue service law is a significant step towards improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the rescue service in Berlin. By focusing on prevention, strengthening health literacy, and categorizing emergencies, the reform aims to ensure that the rescue service can continue to save lives effectively.
