Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care of the CHVR Purpose of the service

Since 2004, the anaesthesiology service of the hospitals of Martigny, Sierre and Sion have combined to form the Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation service (‘Service d'anesthésiologie et de reanimation’, SAR) of the Centre Hospitalier du Valais Romand (CHVR). Its purpose is to ensure that patients are provided with optimal care for any intervention involving anaesthesia in and outside the operating block, on all three sites. The service's level of activity is constantly increasing, with between 15,000 and 16,000 anaesthesiological procedures currently being performed every year.

On-Call Activity

During the night and on bank holidays, all surgical activity and handling of critical emergencies takes place at the Sion site. This is why the activity of the anaesthesiology team is focussed on Sion during these periods. The on-call consultants work on a rota basis to provide an ‘on-call I’ response level in Sion (the doctors are present on the site) and an ‘on-call II’ response level (in attendance within a maximum of 90 minutes on all 3 sites). In Sion hospital, there is also an assistant doctor present 24 hours a day, two anaesthetic night nurses and three anaesthetic nurses at the weekend and on bank holidays from 07:00 to 20:00.
The sites of Sierre and Martigny are also covered by the DAR in case of any emergency at the weekend and during the night thanks to the ‘Support Team’. This is a mobile unit consisting of one doctor and one anaesthetic nurse who are able to be at Sierre or Martigny within 30 minutes and who can provide first aid in resuscitation in case of any critical problem affecting the patient, before bringing him/her to Sion.
 

Links

Contact

Organisation

Projects in Progress

Partnership and Collaboration

  • Standardisation of heavy and light equipment and consumables on the 3 sites.
    Strengthening inter-site exchange for assistant doctors and nursing staff.
    Development and standardisation of professional training for the nursing and medical staff on all three sites.
     

  • The SAR, in particular its section located in Sierre, is governed by the framework of the Vaud-Valais Agreement of 13 June 1996, which covers interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery and anaesthesiology. The SAR is bound by a service agreement, in particular as far as its activities in connection with the Intensive Medicine Department and the Accident & Emergency Department in Sion are concerned. For the recruitment of its assistant doctors, the SAR is the co-founder of the Latin Commission for Training in Anaesthesiology (‘Commission latine de formation en anesthésiologie’, COMASUL)