The Hirslanden group's new Public Affairs team

After ten years, there has been a changing of the guard in the Public Affairs department of the Hirslanden Group. From 1 September 2020, Monika Güntensperger and Dr. Dominic Pugatsch will jointly represent the interests of the Hirslanden Group at the interface between politics, business and the general public.

Monika Güntensperger has been working as a public affairs expert at Hirslanden since June 2019. She has intimate knowledge of the healthcare sector, having worked in the Health and Environment Department at the City of Zurich from 2015 to 2019, where she was responsible for the political affairs of the Triemli and Waid public hospitals. Prior to that, she worked for Interpharma as an Economic Issue Manager. She gained her extensive professional experience in the area of public affairs through her earlier roles at Credit Suisse and hotelleriesuisse. Monika Güntensperger holds a degree in International Relations from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).

Dr. Dominic Pugatsch has been the Managing Director and Public Affairs Manager of the GRA Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism since 2016 and has substantial political and regulatory experience. Prior to that he worked as a lawyer for four years, focusing on technology, IT/ICT and consumer goods law. During his university education, he gained work experience in the Health Department of the Canton of Zurich and wrote his dissertation about health claims. Dominic Pugatsch holds a Master of Law and a doctorate earned in 2012 from the University of Lucerne.

Urs Martin, the acting Head of Public Affairs, has been with Hirslanden since 2010. He was elected to the Thurgau cantonal government on 15 March 2020. Martin will take up his post as Head of the Department of Finance and Social Affairs on 1 June 2020. He successfully guided Hirslanden through the introduction of the new hospital financing system in 2012 and contributed towards almost all Hirslanden hospitals becoming listed on the cantonal hospital lists. During his time as Head of Public Affairs, Hirslanden won significant service contracts in the field of highly specialised medicine. Martin also made an important contribution towards cooperation with public hospitals in the area of public-private partnership projects in both German and French-speaking Switzerland. As Vice President and Policy Officer of the Swiss Private Hospitals Association (PKS), he also repeatedly pointed out the problematic nature of the multiple roles played by the cantons in relation to healthcare policy.

The Executive Committee would like to thank Urs Martin for his many years of dedicated service and wishes him all the best and every success in his new role.

Hirslanden Private Hospital Group

The Hirslanden Private Hospital Group consists of 17 hospitals in 10 cantons, many of which have an emergency department. It also operates 2 outpatient surgical units, 17 radiology institutes and 5 radiotherapy institutes. The Group has 2,303 affiliated doctors and 10,442 employees, of whom 510 are permanently employed doctors. Hirslanden is the leading private hospital group and the largest medical network in Switzerland. In the 2018/19 financial year, the Group generated turnover of CHF 1,778 million. As at 31 March 2019, the Group had treated 106,851 patients, amounting to a total of 479,631 inpatient days. In insurance terms, the patient mix consists of 48.7% basic, 29.5% semi-private, and 21.8% private insured patients.

The Hirslanden Private Hospital Group stands for first-class medical quality, delivered by qualified medical specialists with years of experience. As a system provider, Hirslanden stands out from the rest of the market: interdisciplinary medical centres of expertise and specialised institutes make it possible to offer the best possible individualised treatment, even in highly complex cases. The Hirslanden Private Hospital Group was formed in 1990 through the merger of several Swiss private hospitals. Since 2007 it has been part of the international hospital group Mediclinic International plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.