Return service

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Patient collection at Tallinn Airport

The return service (RHD) means the home transport of accident victims or sick people from Germany and abroad to their home country.

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Car service

The patient is picked up by the aid organization and driven home.

Long distance ambulance

The patient was picked up in an ambulance and driven to the home clinic.

Ambulance

In critical cases in which transport by ambulance is no longer possible, an ambulance or an intensive care vehicle can be used instead .

Flight attendant

An emergency doctor and / or a paramedic / paramedic accompany and care for the patient in a conventional airliner. Depending on the condition, simple lying areas (“stretcher”) or intensive care units (temporary) installations, so-called “patient transport compartments”, can be used. Flight attendants usually take place in the "Business" category, as the "Economy" class usually does not offer enough space, but also in the "Economy" category.

Interior ambulance aircraft

Ambulance flight

A suitable air ambulance is used. Compared to the use of an ambulance jet, a return transport by airliner is often cheaper, despite the necessary reconstruction of the aircraft. The cost of a return from Bangkok in 2007 was around 57,000 euros per patient.

A return transport to Austria from Brazil with a PTC (Patient Transport Compartment) in 2016 cost around 80,000 euros.

Special insurance is required for the repatriation service. This is often already available for members of the ADAC , for example (but also similar ones, such as: Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund , German Red Cross or trade unions ), but can also be taken out separately with an insurance company . In Austria, the OAFA medical flight ambulance has been carrying out the repatriation service since 1977 and offers travel insurance that includes repatriation.

Repatriation abroad

Ambulance at the airfield

Repatriation abroad (also: "repatriation") is the term used to describe the return transport of seriously ill or injured people from a travel destination . If possible, repatriation takes place under the appropriate medical supervision of a doctor and a paramedic or nurse .

In the case of repatriation from abroad, the effort between costs and benefits must be weighed according to the following factors, among others:

• The quality of medical care at the respective location
• significant communication problems (especially with the anamnesis )
• Expertise or specialization
• Social relationships in the home country can have a positive effect on the course of the disease

A cost-benefit analysis is not used in medical emergencies with travel insurance, such as the OAFA medical flight ambulance, here other criteria decide, in particular the severity of the illness / the consequences of the accident.

Transporting a patient involves risks. Not everyone can be transported at any time, there are medical indications in which a return transport is only possible at a certain point in time. The accompanying flight doctor decides, together with the doctor treating you on site, whether the patient can be transported. In the case of a return flight, the term "Fit to Fly" is often used for this.

costs

For the Federal Republic of Germany , the costs of repatriation are generally not covered by health insurance companies . This goes back to a court ruling, according to which it must be assumed that the person who is going abroad is also financially strong enough to take out a corresponding letter of protection or a corresponding insurance (see Section 60, Paragraph 4, Clause 1 of the Social Security Code V).

In Austria, too, social security does not cover repatriation costs.

Almost all repatriation rescue organizations and private insurance companies offer appropriate insurance. Otherwise, the patient usually has to bear the mostly considerable costs himself.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Gerald H. Ueberscher: Travel Insurance. Transport in the Patient Transport Compartment (PTC), costs. In: ReiseTravel. Europäische Reiseversicherung AG, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; accessed on December 7, 2011 : “The PTC is a 2.30 meter x 2.40 meter large, all-round enclosed cabin with a height of 1.90 meters that can be installed in the Lufthansa Boeing 747 aircraft. It extends over a total of 12 seats and contains all important intensive care facilities for the care of emergency patients. […] The return transport in the airliner causes considerable costs, depending on the distance from the country of travel. For example: Return transport from Bangkok: in the stretcher approx. 14,000 euros in the patient transport compartment approx. 38,000 euros in the ambulance jet approx. 57,000 euros " 
2. ↑ Medical flight attendant - ambulanzflug-zentrale.de . ( ambulanzflug-zentrale.de [accessed on July 25, 2018]).
3. ↑ Medical flight attendant - AMBU-TRANS . In: AMBU-TRANS . ( ambu-trans.de [accessed on February 27, 2017]).
4. ↑ Transportability abroad. In: Air ambulance headquarters. Retrieved January 18, 2018 .