– Episodes from 110 years of hospital history
From its opening in 1913 until its closure, the Tiefenauspital experienced ups and downs. A review.
Published: December 14, 2023, 9:34 p.m
Now the hospital corridors are empty. Little by little the departments moved out.
Foto: Raphael Moser
On Friday, December 15th, at 12 p.m., a piece of Bern’s history comes to an end. Then the last department of the deep hospital closes with the emergency ward.
The memories of visits and stays remain – but also numerous episodes from 110 years of the city hospital. A selection.
The uncertainty before the new millennium
At the end of 1999, the world was nervous: would all computer systems make the leap into the new millennium? The feared millennium problems could have caused great damage, especially in hospitals. That’s why the newspaper “Der Bund” was on site in Tiefenau on New Year’s Eve.
Topics at the turn of the year included a bruised wound, suspected appendicitis, and excessive alcohol. But not the technology and the power supply: everything worked. The prepared crisis organization would become obsolete, the newspaper wrote.
The devices must work. A power outage would have devastating consequences in a hospital.
Foto: Raphael Moser
At that time, hospitals had to contend with completely different problems: “Too few staff, huge work pressure and too little time for patients,” the report said.
In fact, the headlines from back then are today’s. The staff shortage was catastrophic, said the hospital association president in the “Berner Zeitung” at the end of 1999. “We have closed beds and have to turn away patients.”
Orphaned patient room shortly before closure in December 2023.
Foto: Raphael Moser
The President of the Association of Bernese Nurses called for more pay and relief for nursing: “Many nurses would come back if the working conditions were better.”
The hospitals finally reported the number of free beds by fax to a central location so that referring doctors could find out about free capacities.
Art in the hospital
Art played an important role in the Tiefenauspital. For a long time there was a sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle in the entrance area, large and colorful.
The hospital owned several works by the French-Swiss artist, and that is no coincidence. Niki de Saint Phalle, who died in 2002, was a patient at Tiefenau in the 1970s. For this she designed a logo that adorned the documents for six years.
“Le couple à l’oiseau”: The large sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle adorned the reception for years.
Photo: PD Tiefenauspital
There are 20 lithographs by the artist in the archive, but the sculpture at the entrance was on loan. According to the Insel Group’s media office, it was returned to the owner family in 2017.
The hospital’s art collection includes around 250 works and will be integrated into that of the Inselspital when it closes.
There are also connections to literature: the writer Walter Vogt, who died in 1988, was once head of the radiology department, and his employment contract is listed in his estate. The writer Paul Wittwer, born in 1959, also worked as a doctor in Tiefenau Hospital for a while.
Voting on an MRI machine
There was a lot of talk about the first MRI machine at the Deep Hospital, and coordination was necessary before purchasing it.
At that time, in 1995, 19 communities from Zollikofen to Stettlen belonged to the Bern Hospital Association. Some members of the association opposed the purchase of a magnetic resonance tomography device.
The canton was also against it because there were already seven devices in the Bern area. However, the association’s board emphasized that MRI diagnoses are an integral part of a hospital and are already common practice in private hospitals.
The current MRI machine in the deep hospital. It was sold.
Foto: Raphael Moser
As the newspaper “Der Bund” reported, 17 MPs ultimately spoke out for and 13 against the purchase of one device each for Tiefenau and Ziegler at a price of 1.3 million francs each.
The first tube from 1995 has since been replaced. Two MRI machines were recently in operation in Tiefenau. According to the island media outlet, they have been sold.
Transport service thanks to volunteers
Some patients and visitors were happy about the little bus. From 2015, the hospital offered a free shuttle service from the RBS station to the hospital and back.
This was maintained by around ten volunteer drivers, including Hans-Peter Grütter. The retired teacher took the Monday morning shift for eight years and filled in on other days when needed.
He remembers the first vehicle, an electric minibus with space for four people, which “could neither be heated nor cooled”. The trips required special permission so that they did not interfere with the taxi industry.
Hans-Peter Grütter is one of the volunteers who drove the shuttle bus.
Photo: Nicole Philipp
In the two and a half minutes of travel, Grütter learned a lot, both happy and sad. The fates have taught him humility. The volunteers who worked as drivers, at reception or in the library came together at team meetings or Christmas dinners. Hans-Peter Grütter appreciated the atmosphere. “The Tiefenauspital was a family hospital, not a factory.”
Now that the trips have stopped, he’s not looking for anything new. But if something happens to him, he is open, he says. «I can’t do much in the world. But provide some warmth in your own environment.”
The people in the hospital
Countless people have been employed at the Tiefenauspital over the years. The staff did an extraordinary job – under a wide variety of conditions. In the beginning, these were so strict that the author of the 2013 Festschrift came to the conclusion: “The employees were more or less barracked.”
As an example, he quotes from the 1933 service regulations: “Work begins at 6 a.m. throughout the year and lasts until 7 p.m.; except for the one for the kitchen and heating staff, which can be extended depending on needs.”
At the beginning of the 1930s, the hospital had around 70 employees. There have been around 600 recently.
Staff and patients are gone, the beds are empty.
Foto: Raphael Moser
The staff received a lot of praise after a scary moment in the 1990s. A marten caused a short circuit, and a short time later the emergency power supply also failed. “The staff in our intensive care unit ventilated two patients manually for around 45 minutes,” said the information sheet printed in the commemorative publication.
Not all patients could be completely helped; death is also part of everyday life in a hospital. This became clearly visible to the population when the mayor of Bern, Eduard Freimüller, died in office in 1966 after a long illness. As the hearse left the deep hospital, it was escorted by police officers on motorcycles.
Tiefenau affair in the 1980s
Even Swiss television reported on the hospital administrator’s resignation in the early 1980s. In doing so, he forestalled disciplinary proceedings. He was later convicted of disloyalty in office, fraud and embezzlement. According to newspaper reports at the time, arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi was among the victims. At that time, doctors from the Tiefenauspital were providing medical services on his yacht. The Tiefenau affair shocked the hospital and caused financial damage.
The new building everyone was talking about
The 110-year history of the Tiefenauspital is one of building plans and construction phases. Around 30 years after it went into operation, the Bernese voters decided to expand, as there were up to 240 patients in each of the 152 normal beds.
As can be seen from the commemorative publication, the hospital was rebuilt in the 1960s and added nurses’ houses, and further renovations and expansion took place in the 1980s.
Bern Hospital; Bern Hospital Network; Island group: The names also changed as the sponsorships changed.
Foto: Raphael Moser
For the last 20 years there has been talk of a new building that would replace Ziegler and Tiefenau. It should be created once on the Tiefenau area, once in Wankdorf, once on the island area. It was a time of changing sponsorship: Spital Bern became Spital-Netz Bern AG and finally Insel-Group.
In the future, the hospital will be used as asylum accommodation.
Foto: Beat Mathys
In mid-2018, the U-turn: the island group announced that it would not be building a new building. Rather, she wanted to renovate the existing hospital. In 2020, she invested a good two million francs in statics and fire protection.
Now the material still needs to be reined in.
Foto: Raphael Moser
This spring the announcement followed: The Tiefenauspital will be closed. At the beginning of January the building will be returned to the city of Bern. It will be used as asylum accommodation for the near future.
Source: Anniversary commemorative publication 100 years of Tiefenau Hospital (1913 – 2013)
The end of the deep hospitalA topic of conversation – the Bern podcastBrigitte Walser is an editor in the Bern department and writes primarily about health and social policy issues.More information
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2023-12-15 19:58:31
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