After the TOPR helicopter failure, there was a discussion on social media about the need to introduce payment for the injured. According to the head of TOPR, Jan Krzysztof, it would be “punishment for having an accident.” And it would not improve the situation of the ambulance.
On Thursday, during TOPR exercises, one of the Sokół helicopter engines was broken. The machine, on board of which there were two pilots and two rescuers, were successfully planted at the airport of the Aero Club in Nowy Targ. However, the temporary exclusion from the use of Sokol, and at the beginning of the summer season, meant that in social media there were voices that – a model of Slovakia and some Alpine countries – also in Poland victims should either have a policy purchased or cover the costs of the rescue operation themselves.
Jan Krzysztof, the head of the Tatra Volunteer Ambulance Service, is not an enthusiast of this solution. As he emphasized in an interview with PAP, at the main cost of the operation of rescue entities – an ambulance, fire brigade or mountain rescue, is to maintain readiness. The costs of rescue operations themselves are a small part of the entire budget.
“I often hear the argument that they are to pay you without a flexible. No, with such a solution everyone pays, including those who behave properly and yet undergo an accident” – pointed out the head of TOPR and added that this carelessness is difficult to prove: “we would not like to spend time in court and build in the emergency department of the debt collection department.”
As Jan Krzysztof argued, TOPR has contacts with emergency services throughout Europe and outside of Europe, and they act on various principles. Hence, he knows that payment for shares does not make people more cautious and does not result in a smaller one counting accidents.
In the head of the head, such a solution is in a sense punishing for having an accident in the mountains. “I would not like to run a company whose action would be based on typical commercial rescue performance,” he assured.
The activities of mountain emergency services in Poland are financed from the state budget, from admission fees to national parks (15 % ticket prices are transferred to rescue in a given area), as well as from the support of partners and sponsors and from voluntary transfer of 1.5 percent. write -off from income tax. “These are greater revenues to our budget than those from payment for the services of services in Slovakia,” emphasized the head of TOPR. He also pointed out that Slovak rescuers are struggling with serious organizational and financial problems, and the cost calculation system is very complicated. “I have no data for the last year, but revenues in this respect constitute a maximum of 8 percent of their budget,” Krzysztof pointed out.
The next PAP interlocutor perceives this matter, although not a lifeguard, it is also professionally associated with the Tatras. “It is a hate for people who walk in the mountains and there are accidents to them,” said Jan Krzeptowski-Sabała, a guide, a tourism specialist in the Tatra National Park. He also points out that such a solution could not be introduced locally: “After all, at the seaside or Masuria, rescuers do not delete anyone. This would require a change in the rules of financing services throughout Poland, changes at the level of laws and ordinances,” he noted.
Krzeptowski-Sabała sees one more threat in such a solution-in the event of a dangerous situation, some of the victims, not having insurance and afraid of incurring high costs, would wonder whether to call for help, which could have tragic effects.
“Rescue activities should have constant financing from several sources, not from people who became crippled or families of those who died in the mountains,” he concluded.
As Jan Krzysztof told PAP, it is still unknown how long the TOPR machine will be turned off from use. “If it turns out that this break will be longer, we have the decision of Minister Kosiniak (Władysław Kosiniak -Kamysz, deputy prime minister, minister of national defense – PAP) and we are in working contact with military aviation, with whom we have worked many times,” said the head.
As during earlier breaks in the operation of the TOPR helicopter caused, for example, by service inspections, the service in Zakopane will be performed by military falcon with military air service and the TOPR rescue and medical crew on board.
Last year, TOPR helped 1330 people. About 30 percent Actions were those using helicopter.
In the Slovak part of the Tatra Mountains, the costs of the rescue operation are resisted on the rescued. Horska Zacharanna Sleuzba (equivalent of our TOPR) issues an invoice to the victim, and this – if he had a policy involving the activity that resulted in an accident (e.g. trail, non -school, mountaineering, skitouring) – may apply for reimbursement of costs from the insurance company. This principle does not apply to minors and families of people who have succumbed to fatal accidents.
HZS, unlike TOPR, does not have its own helicopter. He uses Bell 429 and Agusta A109K2 machines that are part of the company's fleet, which, on behalf of the Slovak Ministry of Health, acts as the equivalent of our Air Ambulance Service. If it is known that the purpose of the action is to transport the bodies of the victim of the accident, then the helicopter of the Slovak Ministry of the Interior is sent, of which HZS is part, so that the Aviation Subcontracting Company does not charge a fee for it and not to burden it close to the victim. (PAP)
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