The other side of the Rhein swim: More rubbish than ever before
The official Rhein swim is over – around 5000 people took part in the annual event on Tuesday night. However, the cultural event did not only consist of people floating down the Rhine but also left behind rubbish – more than an average amount.
It was a real festival atmosphere: After work, thousands of enthusiastic swimmers flooded to the Rhine and floated downwards from Schaffhauserrheinweg to the Johanniterbrücke. The Swiss Lifesaver’s Society organised the 37th Rheinschwim. The event aims to give people an opportunity to swim supervised in natural waters but also raise awareness of the dangers connected to it.
As overwhelming the event always is: The stroll home along the Rhine was sobering. After such a festival one is happy, tired and somewhat sad that it was over. However there were enough memories of the swimming festival to be seen: The rubbish had piled up everywhere. “There was an above average amount of rubbish,” said André Frauchiger, member of the public relations team of the Construction and Traffic department of Basel-Stadt. The empty ice tea tetra packs are the lesser of the evils and not all of them fit into the already filled up rubbish bins. The reason for the rubbish was indeed the popular giveaways: commercial advertisement objects in masses.
City cleaners out in full force
Yesterday (Wednesday) the Rhine promenade looked like it always does. The city cleaners are in charge of tidying up after every event, two sweepers and a sweeping machine took care of the rubbish. “Even in the early afternoon the city cleaners were busy cleaning the Rhine banks,” said André Frauchiger. In addition to the 24 containers which are always put in place along the river banks in the summer, a further five containers were placed there for the swimming event. And yet despite these measurements, the containers and rubbish bins overflowed. In total the swimming event produced four cubic metres of rubbish. This may not sound much but it amounts to 16,000 litres of additional rubbish.
Also, a lot of rubbish went directly into to the Rhine; nobody knows how much. The city cleaners however know that there is more rubbish than usual during popular festivities. After the Fasnacht, 300 city cleaners collected more than 250 tons of rubbish.
The Federal government saves 470 million franks for medical specialists and hospitals – Basel region also affected
Medical specialists and hospitals providing an ambulance service are to receive less money from the Federal government. Changes in the medical tariff system (TARMED) will save almost half a billion franks from 2018 onwards. This could affect the cost of health insurance from next year.
The interference in the autonomous tariffs of health insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals is no surprise. They have negotiated for years about the adjustments of the tariffs concerning the coverage of ambulance medical services. Some of the 4600 positions are undoubtedly not valid anymore.
The Federal government decided to intervene since the negotiations of the tariff partners did not come to any solutions last year and the talks were scrapped. Alain Berset, Federal Minister for public health, told the media on Wednesday that he was forced to intervene since otherwise there would have been no tariff from 2018 onwards.
Cheaper operations
The Federal government e.g. decided to rate lower the services which have been shortened due to medical or technological progress. There will be less money for operations on cataracts, colonoscopies, eye injections, or radiotherapy.
Doctors conducting operations will earn less money. Their payments will sink linearly by 10 per cent. The Federal government wants to increase productivity and also make operations less lucrative. With this, fewer unnecessary operations would be carried out. Also, payments for equipment and devices will be lowered by 10 per cent.
More money for general practitioners
Furthermore, medical services will not be rated according to the different amount of advanced medical training. This leads to an upgrade of services in primary health care on the cost of specialists. In 2014, the Federal government transferred a lump sum of 200 million franks from specialists to general practitioners and pediatricians.
The government has also adjusted the rules about how doctors can calculate their services for absent patients, e.g. studying medical records, talks to experts and relatives. These services must be restricted more precisely.
Also, a maximum of 30 minutes per quarter year can be charged, compared to 60 minutes today. The services relating to a patient’s absence are suspected to not be justified in every case and be significantly responsible for the growth of costs in the last years.
Additional payments for emergencies will remain
The time limit for basic consultations remains at 20 minutes. From experience it is known that small children and older people need more time for medical treatment. Patients under 6 and above 75 years have an extended limit of 30 minutes. In accordance with insurance companies, doctors can charge more for the basic consultation for patients with higher demands.
The Federal government has made an important correction following criticism during the consultation process. The government previously proposed that hospitals with emergency units cannot charge emergency supplements. They should be able to do this however in the case of a real life-threatening emergency.