PD Dr. med. Henry Hoffmann, as a member of the board of the Swiss Hernia Society (SAHC), has exchanged views with colleagues from the German (DHG) and Austrian Hernia Societies (ÖHG) on the topic of «Outpatient Surgery of Inguinal Hernias». In the DACH region (Germany – Austria – Switzerland), outpatient surgery has not yet become established despite political demands. The main reasons for this are financial disincentives (outpatient surgery is loss-making) and the fact that the decision as to whether an inguinal hernia can be operated on as an outpatient or not has been taken out of the hands of the surgeons who are ultimately responsible. In addition, surgical training suffers massively from the serious underfunding of outpatient surgery. The working group has now published the discussion in the form of a high-level position paper and thus hopes to initiate a constructive discussion in which the hurdles that stand in the way of a further expansion of outpatient surgery can be overcome.