The Federal Council improves the organization of the Coordinated Medical Service
At its meeting on March 21, 2025, the Federal Council approved the Ordinance on the Coordination of Medical Services (VKSD). This will enter into force on May 1, 2025. The aim of this amendment is to create the organizational basis for the intended realignment and to prepare the coordinated medical service more efficiently and effectively for crisis situations.
Under the leadership of the Swiss Security Association (SVS), a project to reform the Coordinated Medical Service (KSD) was developed with a view to realigning the KSD. The final report of this project from 2021 contains various organizational proposals on how the KSD should be set up in the future with regard to risks in the health sector.
As a first implementation step, the Coordinated Medical Service was transferred from the Defense Group to the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) as of 1 January 2023. It will thus be more closely integrated into the civil protection network.
As a second implementation step, new structures are now to be created in order to optimally support and manage the changes in content and the realignment of the Coordinated Medical Service.
New committees and specialist staff for improved coordination of KSD partners
This amendment to the Ordinance on the Coordinated Medical Service, now entitled "Ordinance on the Coordination of the Medical Service" (VKSD), establishes a new organization with equal representation from the Confederation and the cantons. At a strategic and operational level, the existing bodies of the SVS, the operational platform and the political platform, will be used for this purpose.
In particular, a technical support committee brings the concerns of the CPS partners to the attention of the steering committees and advises the CPS Commissioner together with the CPS Office in the FOCP, which will continue to act as the driving force behind the realignment. The Medical Services Coordination Committee (SANKO) will be abolished. In exceptional situations, a new specialist team will assess the situations and challenges from the perspective of the medical service.
As a third step towards implementing the SVS's final report of 2021, a strategy for the reorientation of the KSD is currently being drawn up in the form of a report to the Federal Council on the national coordination of disaster medicine. It is primarily the implementation of this report that is to be monitored and managed by the newly created committees.
Source: babs.admin.ch
