© dpa
Berlin's rescue service is to be noticeably relieved. To this end, the black-red government coalition is launching a reform of the Rescue Services Act.
The Senate approved the draft for this at its most recent meeting, as Senator of the Interior Iris Spranger (SPD) subsequently announced. The next step is for the state parliament to deal with it and then pass the law.
"The system is under a lot of strain and the number of call-outs is rising," said Spranger, explaining the need for reform. In 2024, there were almost half a million call-outs in the ambulance service, almost 21,000 more than in the previous year. One of the reasons for this is demographic change: more and more people are getting older and need medical assistance. One aim of the reform is to enable the rescue service to concentrate on its core tasks of emergency rescue and emergency transport. "People now often call the emergency services even though there is no medical emergency in the original sense," said Spranger. "In 2024, the fire service was able to refer almost 40,000 such calls to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians."
As an alternative to the emergency number 112, the central number 19 222 is to be used more frequently for patient transport in future, thereby relieving the burden on the rescue service. State fire chief Karsten Homrighausen pointed out that the amendment to the law would enable the fire brigade's rescue service to categorise emergencies. Not every emergency that is reported is one at all or one where every second counts. This is the case for urgency 1, such as heart attacks or strokes, and for cases with urgency 5, there is the option of calling in acute care or psychiatric emergency services, for example. Homrighausen said that around a tenth of all call-outs to date fall into urgency level 5.
However, the legislative changes are also intended to strengthen prevention and health literacy. A good example of this is the so-called preventive emergency medical service, said Spranger. ‘This means we take action before patients become emergencies,’ said Spranger. Self-help skills can help to reduce the frequency with which the emergency medical service is called. The range of first aid courses on offer is to be expanded, for example.