The cooperation will allow synergies to be utilised and new offers developed in the field of training and continuing education in emergency and rescue medicine. For the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation (SPF), as the parent company of SIRMED, and for Rega, this joint funding structure is the logical continuation of many years of successful cooperation. "I am delighted about this new cooperation," explains Joseph Hofstetter, Managing Director of the SPF. "SIRMED has now diversified even further, is benefiting from new input, and can continue to expand its core business competencies."

Ernst Kohler, CEO of Rega, emphasises the benefit for patients: "A successful rescue operation requires efficient cooperation along the whole rescue chain. Our commitment promotes training and development at all levels of rescue medicine, which improves the quality of cooperation at the scene of an accident, which in turn benefits our patients." 

Headquarters to remain in Nottwil

The core mandate of SIRMED, namely to further improve emergency care in Switzerland by means of training courses, will remain unchanged under the new funding structure. The institute's headquarters will remain at the Nottwil premises, Helge Regener will retain his position as Managing Director and is delighted about the fact that staff numbers at SIRMED are likely to increase further. It has been agreed that no financial details of this partnership will be disclosed.

SIRMED, the Swiss Institute of Emergency Medicine, started operating in 2002 with four members of staff. Originally, the main focus was on providing outstanding preparation for rescuers dealing with people with spinal injuries. Today, SIRMED is a market leader in the provision of training courses for emergency and rescue medicine, and now has 23 full-time employees and about 230 workers paid on an hourly basis. In September 2018, SIRMED opened its new building with increased space and the most modern simulation rooms of this kind in Switzerland.

Over the past year, almost 10,000 people from all over Switzerland attended SIRMED training courses. However, SIRMED not only makes its infrastructure and courses available to professionals from the field of rescue and emergency medicine, but also offers practice-based first aid courses to people without medical knowledge - in all four languages of Switzerland. Companies make up the majority of customers in this segment. Since 2008, SIRMED has also been a college of professional education and training (Höhere Fachschule). There are currently about sixty people attending the three-year training course to become a certified paramedic (HF) or the one-year course to become an ambulance officer with a federal specialist certificate.