Entwicklung des Notarztwesens in Deutschland – Westdeutschland

Abstract

Initially the premise of the rescue services was to deliver patients to medical care as quickly as possible. Due to the demands of the Heidelberger surgeon Kirchner a rethinking was initiated prior to World War 2. It was not until the 1960s that this concept was taken up again and physicians were incorporated into the rescue services. A prerequisite for this in the technical field was the development of physician escorted rescue vehicles for the prehospital management of road accident victims. After the economic and medical benefits of the deployment of emergency physicians had been demonstrated, the mandatory participation of emergency physicians was laid down in the laws on rescue services by the West German federal states. With increasing acceptance, there was a shift of the patient collective from accident victims to acute internal medical and neurological emergency cases. In order to realize the necessary efficacy of the cost-intensive organization the German Medical Council formulated guidelines for the qualification of emergency physicians.