Since our foundation in 1969, we have been campaigning for a functioning rescue service in Germany and have been able to initiate many improvements over the years. The rescue services are currently in crisis. We see it as our task to develop solutions for the numerous shortcomings.
The rescue service in Germany is currently facing huge challenges: Rising deployment figures with a growing shortage of personnel, very good but also alarmingly poor emergency care in some regions and patients who are left to fend for themselves in the healthcare system without a pilot - these are just a few examples.
A central problem is the lack of nationwide or standardised nationwide standards in terms of training and further training, structured emergency call enquiries, emergency patient care and data collection and evaluation. There are currently large gaps in quality between the individual federal states - and even between individual regions within a federal state. This makes survival a question of location and therefore of chance.
In July 2023, the Björn Steiger Stiftung organised the "Ways to the Rescue Service of the Future" congress in Würzburg. The congress focussed on improving the rescue service in Germany. The nationwide working group Forum Rettungsdienst has been responsible for the technical groundwork since 2017. The Rescue Service Forum also continues to work independently of the congress, making demands and consciously focussing on an intensive exchange between international experts from various specialist areas - including the fields of rescue services, medicine, science and administration. In this way, relevant stakeholders are called upon to act in order to improve the situation.
Even beyond the specialist congress, the Björn Steiger Stiftung continuously seeks dialogue with authorities, institutions, organisations and groups that can send out and receive the necessary impetus on the subject of rescue services. These include the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) as the central lobby of the statutory health and long-term care insurance funds, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Control Centre Association, rescue service managers, consumer advocates, patient representatives and the Joint Federal Committee.
The study Emergency Care & Rescue Services in Germany was commissioned by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and produced in collaboration with the Björn Steiger Stiftung.
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