Take off into the world of Rega

Take off

In brief

Rega helped 31 patients per day

Last year, the Operations Centre organised 16,273 missions at home and abroad, and helped on average 31 patients per day. In addition, Rega assisted the Swiss authorities in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with its expertise and infrastructure. At the request of the Confederation, the Helicopter Operations Centre acted as a national coordination centre, supporting the hospitals in their search for empty intensive care beds. This was only possible thanks to the solidarity of the Swiss population: at the end of 2020, 3,625,000 patrons were keeping Rega in the air, representing a net increase of 73,000 persons (+2 percent) compared to the previous year.

Complete your patronage details

Has there been an addition to your family? Are all your children included in your Family patronage? Full and up-to-date data is important for us to be able to deal with our correspondence with you efficiently. You can notify us of your amendments at any time online or by telephone.

3 Online at www.rega.ch/admin or by telephone via 0844 834 844 (local tariff) from Monday to Friday, 8am – 5pm.

Efficient and comprehensive: the electronic patient report form

Since the beginning of the year, the emergency flight physicians in the helicopter crews document every step in the medical treatment of their patients on an electronic patient report form using a tablet device. In addition, the medical equipment on board the helicopter automatically transmits the patient’s vital parameters to the report form. This ensures that the documentation is complete and also relieves the flight physician of some of the administrative work.

Additional device for an airborne search

One of Rega’s tasks is to search for missing persons who may be in distress. If Rega is called out by the authorities to perform a rescue search, the Operations Centre has various means at its disposal. For example, a search flight with the IR/EOS multi-sensor search system, which has an ultra-sensitive thermal imaging camera. Since February, this system has been supplemented with a so-called “Lifeseeker”. With this device, the mobile phone of a missing person can be located from the air, enabling the search area to be narrowed down to an area of around 150 � 150 metres. The search can then be intensified within this space both from the air and on the ground – such as by the mountain rescuers from the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC). Rega receives the missing person’s mobile phone data from the authorities responsible for the purpose of performing an emergency search.

Emergency doctor vehicles at the Rega bases in Mollis and Erstfeld prove their worth

An emergency doctor vehicle is now stationed at the Rega helicopter bases in both Mollis and Erstfeld. They enable the Rega emergency physician to also be called out if, for example, the rescue helicopter cannot fly as a result of bad weather. Due to the positive experiences, the Glarus authorities, Glarus Cantonal Hospital and Rega decided after a one-year pilot phase to continue the project indefinitely.

Well protected through the summer

With the Rega sports sunglasses, you can optimally protect your eyes from the sun. The sunglasses weigh just 28 grams and are equipped with shatterproof, polarised lenses, which eliminate glare by filtering out the harsh reflections of light from snow, water and rain. The black high-tech frame made from high-grade material is flexible yet stable.

3 Orders via the Rega Shop from page 33 or www.rega.ch/shop

The numbers in this issue:

73,000

additional patrons were supporting Rega as of the end of 2020.

1987

was the year when Rega became the first civilian organisation in the world to use night vision goggles.

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