Join Air Zermatt for 35chf a year (or Rega I assume they are the same) and they will cover any ambulance/heli costs that your insurance doesn't.
Are you saying, if someone is having a heart attack, you should piss around trying to find the number of the local doctor rather than calling 144??
Will REGA come to a train station? I thought they did mountain rescue.
I personally have Air Zermatt membership. It doesn't have to be their ambulance that comes... It can be any, anywhere in CH or lichenstein. If your insurance doesn't cover it then they will foot the bill!
Depends, some insurances pay only half, even if called by a doctor.
Tom
I had a 30km ride in a ambulance in France! I ended up with a bill of 36 euro, a taxi would have been more expensive!
Your GP knows your health history, so could be useful if your problem is related to an ongoing illness. However, he doesnt have emergency training, and probably the last time he ressussed was during his hospital internship, if then. For the paramedic - he or she is trained for emergencies, and their last ressus was probably this week. Paramedics can give morphine, TNT and IV aspirin (your GP doesnt put up lines either) which are the first-line drugs for a heart attack, for example. The SMUR car carries an emergency-trained doctor who can give even more powerful drugs if needed, and intubate - your GP cant do this.
So, the GP isnt the best choice in a serious medical or surgical emergency.
Air Zermatt, Air Glacier, or REGA won't cover ambulance costs.
Contrary to popular opinion, the 144 wont necessarily send an ambulance if they dont feel its justified, not every ambulance goes to a call on a blue light, and if the paramedics dont feel that transport to hospital is necessary, they will leave the person on site, sometimes after treatment.
How did you know what sort of medical attention you needed, if any? Are you a trained healthcare professional, or is your assessment based on costs only?
Thanks for your post.
I was treating a client in the sauna\steam room which can be common as a therapist. Treatments often last 30mins to an hour
Really??
http://www.air-zermatt.ch/air_zermat...?content=EN055
Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Rescue flights and medically necessary transportation with an ambulance to the nearest appropriate hospital (only once per year for the same occurrence)
Medically necessary transfers from hospital to hospital
Rescue attempts made by teams on the ground if there is a realistic chance of saving life
Search and rescue flights if there is a realistic chance of saving life
Evacuation and primary rescue operation if human life is seriously endangered
Rescue flights in order to recover a corpse (after consultation with the responsible authorities)
Helicopter transportation of injured or dead animals (only with combined flights) to the closest location that can be reached by another method of transportation if the owner of the animal has an Air Zermatt family membership. Search flights are not included. Transportation of animals only in the region of the upper Valais. Recovery of working animals is limited up to 30 September.
Hang on, the OP fainted at work ("work") as she was in the sauna too long and too hot.
The OP's health insurance that she should have had at the time will cover some of this.
I don't blame the employer, or more likely a colleague, calling an ambulance when confronted with a collapsed colleague for whom they knew no medical history.
It's not accident as no external factor caused the incident. Don't try to tell me you can say the sauna caused it....
So the bill has to be paid and the personal health insurance to which the OP had a subscription at the time has some joint liability dependent upon terms of the coverage.
Well if they hit their head on the floor, an ambulance would be required as the result of an accident.......
exactly. You cannot ask someone at a work environment to make the choice of doctor/taxi/ambulance. They are not empowered to make such a decision.
Thanks for your response. I'm not qualified to make such decisions but neither were my employer one could argue. They acted in good faith but could in hindsight have handled this better. I fainted was dissoriantated by the event could have had a taxi take me home or to the hospital ONLY if I requested it. Instead they took it upon themselves to act hastly all in good faith I reiterate but unfortunatley good faith is not going to pay 1000 CHF for a decision I did not make.
My insurer will cover 50% of the bill please note.
My assesment is influenced by cost but this is not the crux of my problem. I want to know what options are available to me.
1. Pay up and get 50% back.
2. Do something else.
Dude. It's your bill. Pay it.
Stop and think about the consequences of having it any other way. Imagine a world where not personally calling the ambulance yourself = not paying for it. Now imagine you're at work in this world, and you see a colleague unconscious on the floor. Do you call an ambulance for him (knowing that if he later decides he didn't need it, YOU will be the one stuck with this 1000CHF bill) or do you wait a few minutes? Hey, who knows, maybe he's not really that sick. I mean, who better to determine that than a team of medical professionals a random work colleague?
Or maybe no one's stuck with the bill, hospitals and ambulance drivers just have to work for free all the time, whenever the people they transport and treat decide - retroactively - that it wasn't necessary. Yup, can definitely see that working well.
You accepted transport and medical treatment. If you felt either one was unnecessary, the time to refuse was then and there - not several months later.
Thanks Sean Connery love the movies by the way best Bond ever jokes aside thank you for your response.
Doctors failed to diagnose a problem with me so I can only relate this to the environment I was in at the time of the event. There could be other contributing factors but I guess we will never know.
50% of the bill will be covered by my insurance and I dont blame them for calling the ambulance but why I was never consulted whether it would be paid by them or me causes me some discomfort hence my stance.
I'm not going to read the entire thread due to lack of time. I'm one of those guys who cannot spend all day on EF.
Just one thought: If it had been a brain stroke, your employer had put you in a taxi and you suffered permanent damage because of the delay of proper medical treatment, I bet you'd sue their pants off over gross negligence.
That's what happened to my Dad when he fainted at work. Ironically, he was not only the victim but also his own employer, who, after coming around again, decided to go home and have a rest. He was found the next morning on the floor next to his bed with the phone in his paralysed hand. The following four years he was a slobbering basket case until death released him.
In other words: In such an instance, better err on the safe side.
I'm sure they were more concerned with your health than what it might cost. Safety first is what everyone in office management or security is taught.
And I also believe I was the best Bond.
Okay thanks again valid points raised which i will take into consideration.