Recently, an aquaintance had a stroke in her home. She just managed to call an emergency number before collapsing. When the ambulance arrived, she was on the floor inside but her door was locked.
The family has been told that there was a delay because the ambulance staff had to call the police to come and break into the apartment. This sounds odd. Are ambulance staff, as rescue workers, not equipped to break through a locked door? Or are they perhaps not allowed to do so, such that they have to wait until the police arrive? Surely this is a situation they could easily encounter on any call to an emergency?
For the family, this has become a central question. Could anyone provide an answer of how this works in Switzerland, please? So far, from my online search, I've not found anything, perhaps because I'm not using the right vocabulary. Thank you.
Thank you. Do you know of a source that describes this or body that governs procedure? Understandably, the family is in some turmoil, and it would help the family members to see it set out somewhere, formally.
You’d probably have to ask the Ambulance service for their written procedures. It’s just common knowledge, for example most people know the fire service cut the roof off a car.
I suppose that common knowledge is a mix of experience, countries one has lived in before, etc. I realise I have gaps.
I was surprised that the ambulance staff can't get into someone's apartment. That's based on the two people I know who work in ambulances (albeit in two other countries) and both of them are mandated, trained and equipped to chop down whatever is in their way, as quickly as possible, to get to the person they're supposed to be trying to rescue.
The family concerned is fully Swiss, for generations, but have little experience with emergencies. They are shocked, and very sad, that their mother was in desperate need and that now her recovery chances are so much lower, because precious minutes were lost waiting for the police.
This doesnt answer your question but a similar situation occurred with a friend of mine. Her husband unfortunately passed away. The police had to be called and the apartment was treated as a crime scene, until it was declared not - after two hours.
Same thing happened to a friend recently. They waited for his cleaning lady to arrive with the key, as neighbour gave ambulance her name and phone number.
They explained they would have to wait for Police if she didn't come immediately- as they are not allowed to damage property.
I realise that many (old) people feel vulnerable at home alone but in terms of risk it is much better to leave the door unlocked - a beware of the dog sign might be a good idea.
You really dont want to look into this too much or you just get horrified... simple example: I was driving on the highway and saw some blue lights far behind me in the mirror. For minutes as it never seemed to get close despite me only driving (roughly) the speed limit. I asked a friend who is very active in the local fire brigade and he told me: Speed limits apply to emergency services. Yes, even with alarm and blue light. Anything over 20km too fast will get you into court and cost you months of your income. Most of the drivers had some issues before so would be "repeat offenders"... doubling or tripling their sentences... so they simple wont.
Same for the doors... the monopoly to use force of any kind lies with the police. An ambulance doing anything has a high risk of getting into trouble... so they wont.
Odd .One of my friends was a heart surgeon at Basel University Hospital. When he got a call out, he sent the tickets with the explanation to the police and they were routinely cancelled, as per agreement.
There’s an apparent conflict. On one hand, there’s article 128 of Swiss criminal code. Doropfiz does not mention it, but the family is probably shouting “failure to offer aid in an emergency”.
On the other hand, what are the “circumstances where the person could reasonably have been expected to offer aid”?
I’ll go with an absurd example: I see a child being carried by the Aare after the rains of past days. It’s reasonable to NOT jump into the strong currents of the river to get the child to safety, and only call 117 or 118. That applies to any who is no a professional police, firefighters or health workers.
What about professional health workers? This is Switzerland and laws are made by each canton. This is the Vaud of the “law of public health”, just what Island Monkey mentioned:
I cannot go any further in the search for Swiss law (have to get some work done ), but it should be relevant to look for the cantonal law of public health. I guess the search keywords are “rescue preceding medical intervention”…in German.
There was a story recently, in the UK, where a man was drowning in a river and (many) people just watched him, or videoed him on their phones.
Obviously, as you mentioned, they shouldn't have jumped into the river to try and save him but what they didn't do, and which astounded the professional rescuers who came later, was throw him any of the rescue flotation devices dotted along the river bank - precisely there to aid rescue!