International Hand Hygiene Day at HUGlywood Boulevard
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – To celebrate World Hand Hand Hygiene Day, the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) is finding inspiration from Hollywood to create its own “hand hygiene boulevard” Monday 7 May.
The HUG says its goal is to alert the public, patients and its own staff to the dangers of infections contracted at hospital and the importance of hand sterilization.
Participants will have the chance to leave their hand prints and be filmed, just like the Hollywood stars, while learning about infection and hand hygiene.
The lunchtime event takes place a week and a half before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
Accident just 24km from Sion, where injured children, families were being prepared to fly to Belgium
Deadly accident on the A9 near Fully Friday noon
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It has been a particularly deadly week on Swiss roads, and canton Valais, still reeling from the Sierre autoroute tunnel crash Tuesday that killed 28 people, had a second fatal accident on the A9 Friday, bringing to 31 the number of people who have died on Vaud and Valais roads in less than four days.
Traffic on the A9 from Martigny to Sion was stopped and emergency traffic signs were in place after a vehicle caught fire in the emergency lane of the autoroute Friday 16 March at 11:45, near the Fully-Saxon area. For reasons that are not yet clear, a van crashed into the back of a stationary truck, catching fire. Other drivers rushed to put out the fire and to free the trapped driver, unsuccessfully.
Police have not yet identified the victim.
Fully is just 24km from Sion, where police and hospital workers were busy loading children from Tuesday’s bus crash into air ambulances to fly back to Belgium and their initial route takes them directly over the autoroute where the crash occurred.
The road was closed between Martigny and Sion from 11:35 to 16:10 and from Sion to Martigny from 11:35 to 14:40.
Three children from the bus crash remain in critical condition at the Chuv university hospitals in Lausanne and a motorcyclist hit by a car Thursday in Tolochenaz near Morges is also hospitalized at the Chuv, in critical condition.
A motorcyclist and his passenger died when they collided with a car in Genolier, Vaud Thursday.
Swiss government to review safety of tunnel pullover emergency areas
Holy Cross Church in Sierre was filled to overflowing as the town's citizens came for special mass Thursday night, for those who died or who have been hurt
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Eight of the children injured in the 13 March bus crash in Sierre, canton Valais, that killed 28 people are heading home in specially-equipped planes, police said in a statement issued Thursday evening.
They were discreetly taken to say goodbye to their friends who remain hospitalized in Sion until they are able to travel. Three Belgian armed forces planes were given a special dispensation to land at the airport in Sion in order to pick up the children and their families.
Dr Jean-Pierre Desfarzes, who has headed the emergency medical team dealing with the accident, says that the next 48 hours will be crucial for the most seriously injured, who may suffer long-term neurological and “functional” damage due to the severity of their injuries.
Four of the eight who are heading home have been in the hospital in Visp and four in Sion. Another 10 remain in the Sion hospital, but all have now been moved out of intensive care. The three in Lausanne at the Chuv remain in critical condition and one child flown to Bern suffered multiple fractures and a severe concussion.
“In the hours following the accident we were pessimistic,” Desfarzes told GenevaLunch, “but quite a few are recovering well.”
Dr Desfarzes says that despite the small size of the towns in the area, “Valais has an amazing capacity to absorb” a large number of injured people. The Valais Hospital trauma centre status means that 16 medical disciplines must be on call 24 hours a day. During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday some 150 medical workers were part of the emergency trauma team. Valais Hospital is a collection of nine medical treatment sites throughout the canton.
Fifty operations were carried out on 16 patients, mainly in Sion, which has served as the planning and main treatment centre this week.
Valais Police Chief Christophe Varone briefs the media at the site of the crash Thursday, after the families visited it
The staff included dozens of nurses and operating room assistants, radiology technicians, 10 surgeons and 10 emergency medicine doctors, anesthetists, intensive care specialist physicians, radiologists, pediatricians and pediatric surgeons.
The small city of Sion was able to handle such a heavy burden because of good coordination, say police: Visp, Martigny and Sierre hospitals were able to promptly take in those with lesser injuries and provide them with a very high level of care.
Desfarzes told GenevaLunch that he was proud of the team’s preparedness, which involved quickly bringing together a large number of people who were off-duty or on vacation.
Valais police and the hospitals will not be allowing interviews with any of the children or their families in order to protect their privacy, they told media.
Thursday, late afternoon, more than 250 journalists were taken to visit the site of the crash, the cause of which remains unclear for now. The federal highway department told news agency ats earlier in the day that it is reviewing the “angled” (with corners) emergency areas that are the norm throughout Switzerland.
Media from around the world have streamed into Sierre; today they were taken by police to visit the tunnel crash site before it re-opens
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some 2 million public sector workers are slated to walk out Wednesday 30 November in the UK, affecting schools, hospitals, government offices and public transport, among other services. The strike is over changes to government pension plans, with workers being asked to work longer hours to earn their pensions. The government announced Tuesday it wants to bring forward to 2026 a plan to move the pension age to 67.
Early reports indicate that 75 percent of schools in Britain are affected by the strike.
Prime Minister David Cameron lashed out early Wednesday at the union, holding them responsible for taking labour action while negotiations are going on. The BBC cites General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Russell Hobby, that “blame for any rise in union militancy – particularly among moderate unions – belongs fairly and squarely at the government’s door: A failure to negotiate in any meaningful sense until the last minute”.
The 24-hour strike is widely expected to involve up to two million workers, with the BBC labeling it “what is set to be the biggest walkout for a generation”.
Links to other sites: Daily Mail, Guardian, the Scotsman, Telegraph
Breakdown of Swiss health care expenditure, 2008, main categories in Swiss francs: top to bottom, administration, prevention, sales of healthcare products, auxiliary services, ambulatory care, hospital care (Source: Swiss Federal Statistics Office)
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland spent CHF58.5 billion on health care in 2008, or CHF632 per person, figures published 9 November by the federal government show. Healthcare accounted for 10.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a share that remains virtually unchanged, although spending itself rose by 5.9 percent and was above the 3.5 percent average increase for the previous five years. GDP also rose in 2008, by 4.4 percent.
The health spending increase puts Switzerland in third place internationally for healthcare costs as a share of GDP, after the United States, 16 percent and France, 11.2 percent. Germany and Austria have fourth and fifth places with 10.5 percent each.
The new figures were released 20 days before the deadline for Swiss residents to change their insurance company for 2011. An important change from one of the main insurers, Intras, for 2011 will affect policy holders’ pharmaceutical payments: in the past the pharmacies billed the insurance company directly, but Intras in future will insist that patients pay their bills, then ask for reimbursement. The move has prompted some discussion about the legality of the change and some pharmacies have written to regular customers to suggest they change insurance companies. A pharmacist in the Morges region told GenevaLunch, however, that Intras may be the largest but is not the first insurance company to make the change, and that there appears to be a trend to move in this direction, with large insurance groups having one of their insurance companies at a time make the change.
Comparis provides comparative health insurance pricing in the run-up to the insurance change deadline.
The Swiss spent CHF37.5m in 2008 on four main categories that account for 61 percent of overall costs: Read more…
En route to the Chuv with a broken leg
Lausanne, Swtizerland (GenevaLunch) – Vaud’s cantonal university group of hospitals, Chuv, will double its surface area by 2020, the canton announced 4 June. The cantonal development plan will be open for public consultation this autumn, but the outline of it, just released, shows Chuv scheduled to have nine new buildings and taking up 20 hectares, twice the space it currently has. Short-term plans include two new buildings, one to house a staff cafeteria and the other an outpatient oncology treatment centre. The two will cost CHF30 million.
The old development plan dates back to 1961 and no longer meets federal land planning requirements. The population whose medical needs Chuv must meet has grown from 500,000 in 1980 to 700,000 in 2010 and it is expected to reach 800,000 by 2025. The growing older population will require more hospital treatment, with 19 percent of the population in Vaud over the age of 65 by 2025.
The occupancy rate of beds was 94 percent in 2009, but close to 100 percent in some units.
Assistance from around the world is arriving in the western city of Padang, Sumatra in Indonesia as time runs out for the thousands of people believed still trapped underneath buildings and houses after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck 30 September. The official death toll exceeds 1,100 according to UN Humanitarian Affairs chief, John Holmes. Rescue efforts are underway at a school that collapsed with 60 school children inside.
Rescue efforts in this city of almost 1 million people and surrounding areas are hampered by rubble in the streets and broken communications and power lines. Dazed and stunned people wander the streets looking for loved ones. Staff at hospitals are working overtime and the city’s morgues are full. CNN, Jakarta Post, Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The bulk of a tab for CHF80 million in unpaid hospital bills will most likely be picked up by Swiss cantons.
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Reports that paying for a private room for non-urgent surgery reduces the waiting time before the operation is scheduled appear to be unfounded.
