Der Anaesthesist
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The increasing mechanisation, specialisation and sub-specialisation in medicine have enduringly supported the delegation of originally medical activities to non-medical personnel and sometimes also made it necessary. Economical considerations have recently given additional impulse to these developments. ⋯ The following article justifies from professional and legal viewpoints why anaesthesia also belongs to the genuine medical duties and is reserved exclusively for medical personnel. Therefore, the correct performance of parallel narcosis is coupled with far-reaching liability risks for all participants involved in this form of organisation or those responsible for them.
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Out-of-hospital airway management confronts emergency medical teams with complex challenges. To date no specific data are available on the qualifications of emergency physicians (EPs) and the quality of emergency equipment in northern Germany. ⋯ Neither the emergency equipment nor the physicians' knowledge and skills were sufficient to meet the special demands of out-of-hospital airway management, particularly among non-anesthesiologists.