Regarding the report by the Saarbrücker Zeitung, which stated that the Saarland rescue service has reached its limit due to the heatwave and that a crisis meeting involving the Ministry of the Interior, the Integrated Control Center, and Disaster Protection took place on Sunday, Dr. Helmut Isringhaus, health policy spokesman for the FDP Saar, declares:
“The report confirms what has been heard from the emergency services for days: The system was not sufficiently prepared for this predictable peak in demand. Eleven days of heat warnings are not a sudden event. If additional patient transports have to be organized at short notice by volunteers only on Sunday noon, that is not a sign of forward-looking planning.”
According to the ZRF, the capacities usually available for a weekend were fully utilized. Nationwide, 52 vehicles were available on a normal Sunday, and 59 during the week. Only through disaster relief could six additional vehicles be organized at short notice. At the same time, emergency call volume had increased by more than seven percent in recent days.
Isringhaus emphasizes: „The fact that the supply has not collapsed is primarily due to the efforts of the full-time and volunteer emergency personnel. However, it must not be the political goal to stabilize a critical system only when it is already at its breaking point.”
The FDP Saar therefore demands a binding heat and peak deployment plan for emergency medical services and patient transport. In the event of multi-day heat warnings, increasing emergency call volumes, or foreseeable major incidents, additional ambulance and patient transport capacities must be activated early. Ambulances must not routinely be required to take over patient transports, as they would then be unavailable for genuine emergencies. Breaks and relief for the staff must also be scheduled on a binding basis.
The extended emergency medical service must also be organized more reliably. Volunteer structures are indispensable but should not only serve as a short-term reserve. Relief organizations need clear alerting procedures, reliable funding, and fixed operational concepts.
At the same time, Saarland should involve the fire departments more as first responders, creating real time advantages. The aim is not to additionally burden entire fire districts. In practice, two to three appropriately trained personnel from a fire district are sufficient to initiate qualified first measures until the arrival of the emergency services.
"Many prerequisites are already in place: vehicles, radio pagers, communication tools, basic medical training, and often suitable equipment as well. This should not be unfairly criticized but used intelligently. Such collaboration can also deepen cooperation between fire departments, aid organizations, and emergency medical services, and attract new members to voluntary work," said Isringhaus.
The FDP Saar calls on the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Interior to openly evaluate the situation within the framework of a vulnerability analysis and to implement the necessary improvement measures as quickly as possible. This includes analyzing whether response times were exceeded, how often ambulances were tied up for patient transports, how long patients had to wait, and how heavily the staff was burdened.
Isringhaus concluded: “The emergency medical service is part of the critical infrastructure. Heat waves and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. Saarland must not improvise every time but needs prepared structures, clear thresholds, and binding cooperation between emergency medical services, patient transport, disaster control, aid organizations, and fire brigades.”
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