White Cross (ambulance service)
| State Rescue Association White Cross Associazione provinciale di soccorso Croce Bianca |
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| legal form | Organizazione non lucrativa di utilità sociale (ONLUS) |
| founding | August 10, 1965 |
| Seat | Bolzano , South Tyrol , Italy |
| purpose | Aid organization |
| Chair | Barbara Siri President, Georg Rammlmair (Vice President) |
| Managing directors | Georg Rammlmair |
| Employees | 390 |
| Volunteers | Voluntary work / youth: 3,300 people doing community service: 30 Voluntary social year: 10 |
| Members | 50,000 (supporting members) |
| Website | www.weisseskreuz.bz.it |
The Landesrettungsverein Weißes Kreuz ( WK ) is an aid organization active in South Tyrol and parts of the province of Belluno , whose main activities are rescue services, ambulance transport and civil defense. It was founded on August 10, 1965 and is largely supported by volunteer work. At the end of 2011, the White Cross had 2547 volunteers who have done over 915,000 hours of voluntary or free hours. The emergency number has been 112 ( Euronotruf ) since October 2017 , which replaced the 118 previously used.
activity
The organization is the largest organization in South Tyrol , ahead of the Italian Red Cross, and offers rescue services and patient transport . The organization is organized with its 30 sections (= rescue station ) nationwide throughout the province . In each there is at least one ambulance (RTW) or emergency ambulance (NKTW) available that are ready for use around the clock. Emergencies are coordinated by the state emergency call center 112/118 - the ambulance transports by the association's own operations center. The White Cross handled 48,951 missions in 2011: 50,517 patients were transported and almost 1.39 million kilometers covered. In ambulance transport there were over 98,000 journeys with over 120,000 people transported and over six million kilometers covered.
The organization is also in the fields of education and training, organ and laboratory transports , emergency call , emergency services , mountain rescue, first responders , emergency counseling , use of follow-up , support services , SEG , emergency representation , youth group and fire protection service to the heliport work at the hospitals. The organization is a leading member of the private law association HELI - Flugrettung Südtirol , founded in 2011 , the sole sponsor of the South Tyrolean air rescue on behalf of the South Tyrolean provincial government .
The partners are the ADAC and are called in by its patient members when moving to and from Italy.
history
The history of the rescue service in South Tyrol is very similar to that of the South Tyrolean fire service . Already in the 19th century there was a more or less well organized, voluntary or full-time rescue or ambulance in some places. Most organizations were banned between the two world wars and a few state rescue guards with full-time employees took on the tasks of rescue and fire services. The Italian Red Cross took over the rescue service and ambulance transport, as in the entire national territory, with guards in those villages in which the organization is still represented today.
Due to the small number of guards, resources and personnel available, the deadlines for help that are customary today could not be kept by far. Johann "Hans" Nicolussi-Leck, who was the local doctor in Eppan at the time , suffered from a heart condition in the mid-1960s. He had to go to the Innsbruck clinic for an examination . The ambulance available for the relocation broke down due to the wintry road (there was no motorway over the Brenner Pass at that time ) and Nicolussi-Leck vowed to establish a more effective ambulance and ambulance transport in South Tyrol if he got better. Nicolussi-Leck recovered and made it to Bolzano on August 10, 1965 with the help of well-known citizens (Günter Eccel, Franz Berger, Heinrich Döcker, Hermann Nicolussi-Leck , Claudio Paruccini, Karl Pellegrini, Letterio Romeo, Josef Rössler) in 1965 Foundation of the White Cross Association.
In the years that followed, the White Cross was forced to stay afloat financially through various activities that were unusual in the industry. The association collected and sold z. B. waste paper and scrap metal on a large scale and had the opportunity to purchase appropriate vehicles. In the course of the following years, sections (= rescue guards) of the association were set up all over the province in order to be able to shorten the relief periods. Over time, it was also recognized by the political side that this service is essential for a modern society, and rescue stations were built to replace the former temporary cellars and garages in which the sections were housed. With the decree of the President of the Republic of Italy No. 645 of October 10, 1974, the White Cross was recognized as a legal entity under private law. While each ambulance station originally had its own emergency number with its own operator, since 1993 all emergency calls have been centrally accepted and dispatched by the LNZ.
Since May 21, 1998 the organization has been registered in the national directory of voluntary organizations. The White Cross has been a member of Samaritan International since 2010 . On February 18, 2012, the White Cross joined the Italian ANPAS (Associazione Nazionale Pubbliche Assistenze, National Association of Aid Organizations).
At the annual general assembly on June 5, 2015, the previous President Georg Rammlmair handed over his office to the previous Vice-President Barbara Siri, who will now lead the fate of the association. Rammlmair will continue to work as vice president and medical director in the association.
Members and employees
The state rescue association Weißes Kreuz Onlus has over 50,000 members from the population who pay an annual membership fee that depends on the type of membership. These are "South Tyrol", "Worldwide" and "Worldwide Plus", each of which can be taken out as an individual or as a family. In order to be able to become a member of the White Cross, there is only one condition: one must have a permanent residence in South Tyrol.
education
The full-time and voluntary employees working in the association go through a training program which is based on the laws in force in Italy and the autonomous province of Bolzano.
The quality of the services is guaranteed with compulsory training of at least eight hours per year as well as annual recertification. The exams and recertifications are carried out by a commission of trainers, emergency doctors and nurses.
In addition to the training for the various tasks in the association, there are basically three qualification levels:
A course : This basic course is taken by all employees when they join the association and covers the basics of CPR , trauma care and patient repositioning . After successfully completing the exam, the employee can e.g. B. be used in ambulance.
B course : The employee goes into depth in detail on the measures required in the rescue service, such as B. Pediatric Basic Life Support and gets an introduction to the MANV concept . The employees of this qualification level are primarily deployed in the rescue service.
C course : In the highest qualification level in the South Tyrolean ambulance service after nurse and emergency doctor, the content is deepened again. Particular importance is attached to working with the (emergency) medical staff, even in major incidents.
The vehicles of the White Cross, with the exception of the vehicles of the support train, including the load and crew, all weigh a maximum of 3.5 tons and can therefore be driven with the B driving license . In order to continue to guarantee this, lighter models are preferred for new RTW and NAW purchases, such as the Otaris Light upgrade instead of the heavier Delfis 3 model from Ambulanz Mobile . In order to obtain or maintain a driving license with a special signal, a minimum age of 21 years, an instruction course and regular driver safety training are required due to Italian laws and the association's internal regulations .
vehicles
Vehicle types
- NEF ( N otarzt e insatz f CAR ): This vehicle is exclusively LNZ available and is occupied with at least one of the respective emergency district hospital staff as well as a C-rate. In some districts, a nurse is also sometimes on board.
- NAW ( N ot ar zt w agen ): This vehicle is only available to the LNZ and is manned by at least one emergency doctor from the respective district hospital, one employee with a C course, and another employee with at least B course. In some districts, a nurse is also sometimes on board.
- RTW ( R ettungs t ransport w agen ): This vehicle is exclusively LNZ available and is staffed with at least two employees with B-class. In some districts, a nurse is also sometimes on board.
- NKTW ( N otfall- K entwine t ransport w agen ): This vehicle is normally the LNZ available, but can also be used by the operations center of the White Cross for patient transport, if necessary. At least one employee with a B course and one with an A course are employed. Due to the equipment and training within the White Cross, almost all KTWs meet these requirements and are deployed accordingly.
- KTW ( K entwine t ransport w agen ): This vehicle is usually the operations center of the White Cross for ambulance services available, but can be requested for emergency interventions. There are two employees with at least A-course on board.
- LKTW ( L angstrecken- K entwine t ransport w agen ): This vehicle is used for repatriation this country involved in accidents EU citizens and often has a lower structure than ordinary KTW to the flow resistance and thus to reduce consumption at highway cruising. As a rule, the White Cross uses vehicles of the Hornis Baltic model from Ambulanz Mobile as LKTW.
- BTW ( B ehinderten t ransportkraft w agen ): This vehicle is exclusively the operations center of the White Cross for ambulance services available. There is an employee with at least an A course on board.
- PTW ( P ersonen t ransport w agen ): This vehicle is only available to the operations center of the White Cross for patient transport. There is an employee with at least an A course on board.
- ORG ( command vehicle ): The command vehicle brings the organizational head of the rescue service (ORG) to the scene of the incident. The ORG advises the chief emergency physician (LNA) on MANV operations, implements its decisions and takes on the tactical, organizational and logistical management of the operation. Command vehicles of the White Cross are stationed in Bozen, Brixen, Bruneck, Schlanders and Meran.
- Medical motorcycles : Since 2018, the White Cross has been using two travel enduros manned by paramedics ( Ducati Multistrada 950 ) for patrol trips and as first responders when there is high traffic on motorways and main thoroughfares .
NAW of the Bolzano section ( Delfis 3 ).
Ambulance of the Ahrntal section ( Otaris Light ).
KTW of the Ahrntal section ( Hornis Spaceline ).
LKTW at the Bozen ( Hornis Baltic ) station.
Command vehicle of the Bolzano section at the beatification of Josef Mayr-Nusser .
PTW of the Bolzano section.
Ambulance motorcycles in the Bolzano police station.
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Appearance
In order to meet the requirements of EN 1789, almost all NAW and RTW are based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (expansion: Ambulanz Mobile Delfis 3 and Otaris Light ) and all KTW, NKTW and LKTW on the Volkswagen bus (expansion: Ambulanz Mobile Hornis Spaceline, Hornis Silverline, Hornis Alpin and Hornis Baltic ). Originally the vehicles were painted ivory and were only distinguished by the club logo and the respective section name and section telephone number. Like all emergency vehicles in Italy, the current color scheme does not comply with the EU recommendations for sulfur or euro yellow. However, they comply with the laws in force in Italy, which stipulate that private rescue organizations must be identified by white vehicles with diagonal, orange stripes on both sides of the vehicle. In addition, the vehicles of the club are supplemented by surrounding orange stripes and red decorative stripes. This basic sticker is supplemented by the club logo, the logo of the LNZ and that of a possible sponsor.
Emergency command vehicles (ORG) have a yellow-blue checkered stripe around them in addition to the standard stickers.
The vehicles of the care train and the SEG are also pasted according to this scheme, but they also have a blue circumferential band on the edge of the roof.
The club's in -house tow vehicle is signal yellow.
In mid-2018, the White Cross acquired a blood and medication transporter based on the electrically powered Nissan e-NV 200 . The foiling design was developed by a design student at the University of Bolzano and contains green design elements based on electromobility.
Since 2001, the vehicles carry license plate of the civil defense in the form of "PC ZS xxx".
Weißkreuz ambulance from 1979 (VW T2)
Side view of the T2
Later ambulance on a VW T3 basis
KTW based on the VW T4
The club's own tow truck
e-NV 200 in its own design
License plate of an ambulance of the White Cross
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Wish dare - Sogni e vai
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Together with the Caritas Diocese of Bolzano-Brixen, the White Cross has been running the wish-wagon project since the end of 2017 - Sogni e vai , which fulfills the last wishes of seriously ill people. In 2018, a total of 33 trips were made, which are free of charge for those affected and their relatives and are financed, among other things, by donations.
The Otaris Light Mercedes-Benz Sprinter has a blue-orange film on a white background, which differs greatly from the rest of the Weisskreuz fleet, and is equipped with the appropriate medical equipment to accompany seriously ill patients. The special signaling system largely corresponds to that of the normal Sprinter ambulance of the White Cross, but instead of the usual rear warning system with paired beacons, the wagon carries a single, round beacon in the rear area.
Paging name
Each White Cross vehicle has a unique radio call name that is clearly visible on the front and rear and is made up of the initial "WK" (for White Cross) and three digits:
The first two digits identify the rescue station (section) at which the respective vehicle is stationed: 23 stands for the Naturns section, for example, the vehicles have the radio call names WK 233 , WK 235 , WK 237 . Large sections with many vehicles are assigned several numbers. This enables the naming of several ambulances in one section, e.g. B. WK405 , WK415 and WK425 in Bolzano.
LKTW and reserve vehicles, whose radio call name begins with 0, are an exception. LKTW are assigned to different sections, e.g. B. WK 024 - Brixen, WK 025 - Naturns or WK 028 - Innichen. Reserve vehicles are assigned to appropriate districts, e.g. B. Pustertal / Eisacktal district .
The third digit provides information about the vehicle type: ambulance vehicles have the number 5, and emergency vehicles with a radio call name ending in 9 are manned by an emergency doctor (NEF or NAW). The remaining numbers are assigned to KTW, NKTW, PTW and BTW as required. Command vehicles always have radio call names according to the scheme WK x02 : WK102 (Prad), WK202 (Meran), WK 402 (Bozen), WK 502 (Brixen), WK 602 (Bruneck). However, the paging names of some KTW and BTW also end in 2, e.g. B. WK 412 (KTW, Bozen) or WK 512 (KTW, Brixen).
| Section name | Section seat | number |
|---|---|---|
| Schlanders | Schlanders | 10-11 |
| Times | Times | 13 |
| Vinschgauer Oberland | St. Valentin on the Haide | 16 |
| Prad | Prad am Stilfserjoch | 18th |
| Sulden | Sulden | 19th |
| Meran | Meran | 20-22 |
| Naturno | Naturno | 23 |
| Ultental | St. Walburg | 25th |
| Passeier Valley | St. Leonhard in Passeier | 26th |
| Lana | Lana | 28 |
| Unterland | Neumarkt | 30-32 |
| Seis | Seis am Schlern | 33 |
| Überetsch | Eppan | 35 |
| Salurn | Salurn | 37 |
| Val Gardena | St. Christina in Val Gardena | 38 |
| Bolzano | Bolzano | 40-44 |
| Rides | Klobenstein | 45 |
| Etschtal | Terlan | 46 |
| Deutschnofen | Deutschnofen | 47 |
| Welschnofen | Welschnofen | 48 |
| Sarntal | Sarnthein | 49 |
| Brixen | Brixen | 50-51 |
| Klausen | Klausen | 57 |
| Mühlbach | Mühlbach | 59 |
| Brunico | Brunico | 60-61 |
| Alta Badia | star | 63 |
| Ahrntal | Lutago | 65 |
| St. Vigil / Enneberg | St. Vigil in Enneberg | 69 |
| San Candido | San Candido | 70-71 |
| Sterzing | Sterzing | 80 |
organization chart
The command structure within the association clearly separates the tasks and duties of the volunteers from the full-time employees. However, great importance is attached to the fact that all employees appear the same to the outside world. So there are z. B. no badges of rank, epaulettes or the like that provide information about the level of training or the area of responsibility.
In each section, a new committee is elected by all employees every four years. The committee consists of the full-time service head of the section, the heads of the individual departments of a section (e.g. head of the youth group, head of emergency pastoral care, etc.) as well as some freely elected members. This committee meets at regular intervals and takes care of the maintenance and continuation of the section. The committee is chaired by the section head and the vice section head.
At the state level there is the state committee, which is elected by electors from the individual sections.
The full-time employees of each section are headed by the service manager and the rotation manager. They both do all the administrative work that arises in the section. In large sections, the service supervisor is supported by several rotating staff.
At the state level, the White Cross is headed by the President Barbara Siri, the Vice President Alexander Schmid and the Director Ivo Bonamico. The Bolzano main section also has an extensive administrative structure.
The service is usually carried out during the day, from Monday to Saturday (approx. 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.) by full-time employees with the help of volunteers. At night, as well as on Sundays and public holidays, the service is carried out by volunteers.
Sections
There are 33 bases, so-called sections, in the Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Belluno.
Although the association is only active in the province of Bolzano, it has a guard in Cortina d'Ampezzo, which is completely subordinate to the corresponding control center in Belluno.
Until the end of the 1990s, the association had a guard in Mezzolombardo in Trentino , which has since split off into its own rescue company.
Since 2012, the association has temporarily taken over the rescue service in the village of Buchenstein , which is also subordinate to the Belluno control center.
The city of Laives is the only place in South Tyrol in which only the Italian Red Cross maintains the rescue service. In all other localities (Bolzano, Meran, Brixen and Val Gardena) there is also a guard of the White Cross.
Care service
The so-called care service has existed within the White Cross since 1975, which with the units “logistics” and “kitchen” for the supply of large numbers of people, e.g. B. is available after disasters. There are compact outside groups in the sections Brixen, Bruneck, Naturns, Sterzing, Lana, Neumarkt, Sarntal, Terlan and Eppan, each of which has a 7.5-ton truck and a 9-seater bus including a material store.
In the main camp in the section Bolzano most of the fleet is located next to extensive material in the form of exchange-loaders , which corresponding container (field kitchens, cold rooms, workshops, bathrooms, etc.) can take.
The care train has often been sent to other regions of Italy to help after natural disasters.
SEG
After the disaster on the Vinschgau Railway in 2011, SEG units were posted in the Schlanders and Bruneck sections, each of which has a correspondingly extensive warehouse of medical emergency material and its own vehicles for its transport.
In Bolzano the Italian Red Cross and the Bolzano professional fire brigade take over the tasks of the SEG.
First responder
In order to be able to comply with the national laws regarding the emergency response time of eight minutes within cities and 20 minutes in the countryside, the White Cross, together with the Fire Brigade Association and the Alpine Association of South Tyrol, has been maintaining first responder units in some remote towns since 2009. The White Cross takes care of the appropriate training, the insurance of the staff, the medical equipment and the work clothing of the staff, while the fire brigade and mountain rescue provide vehicles, radio and staff. There are now first responder units in the villages of Steinegg , St. Felix , Tall , Vöran , Laurein and Proveis.
In the event of a presumably life-threatening emergency, the first responders can greatly reduce the supply-free interval until an ambulance arrives. Several successful resuscitations speak for this new system.
criticism
In recent years there has been sharp criticism of the White Cross from the Association of Nurses (which traditionally are an important part of the rescue service in some provinces of Italy) that it does not allow the nurses to ride on the rescue vehicles and that jobs would be lost through volunteering. The association also criticized the fact that volunteers and full-time workers trained as rescue workers sometimes carry out measures in the area of emergency competence . The President of the White Cross denied each of the allegations, stating that all applicable provincial and state laws were being observed.
In the meantime, the White Cross itself has permanently employed nurses, who are regularly deployed both in training and in the rescue service.
The private association Weißes Kreuz is accused of holding a monopoly in the South Tyrolean ambulance and ambulance transport, as the Italian Red Cross would de facto not be a competition.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.weisseskreuz.bz.it/de/wer-sind-wir/struktur-des-weissen-kreuzes/leitbild-585.html
- ↑ Death picture of Hans Nicolussi-Leck on sterbebilder.schwemberger.at
- ↑ stol.it ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ weisseskreuz.bz.it ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ stol.it ( Memento from January 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b * Vehicle fleet - WK sections. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
- ↑ * ORG - WK sections. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
- ↑ * Vehicle fleet - WK sections. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
- ↑ * SN - WK sections. Retrieved January 13, 2019 .
- ↑ The White Cross is now also electric. In: Südtirol News. Retrieved January 13, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Dare your last wishes with the wish wagon. In: Südtirol News. Retrieved January 13, 2019 (German).
- ↑ On the road for a year with the wish-wagon. In: Südtirol News. Retrieved on February 28, 2019 (German).
- ↑ weisseskreuz.bz.it
- ↑ wk-cb.bz.it (PDF)
Coordinates: 46 ° 29 ′ 53.4 " N , 11 ° 18 ′ 22.5" E