Cagliari Alessandra Todde takes the field against the government’s cuts to the Pnrr’s healthcare funds. «While we are working to build the government team of our Sardinia and give the first answers to the many priorities that we have the task of addressing, I cannot remain silent in the face of a decision that hits Sardinia and the other regions hard. Italy – is the post that the president publishes on Facebook -. The drastic reduction in PNRR funds intended for public health, desired and announced by the Meloni government, does not just represent a budget cut, but is a real attack on the health of Sardinian citizens and of all of Italy”. The president goes into the merits of the choice: «With one reduction of almost 1.2 billion euros from the Pnrrmainly relating to works for the seismic safety of hospital structures, and a consequent cut in health spending in relation to GDPwe are witnessing a maneuver that puts at risk the ability to guarantee essential public health services to our population.”
In the president’s analysis «we would need, at a national level, 11 billion more per year to return to 2008 levels and instead even for the next two years there are no percentage increases in the ratio between public health spending and GDP. And this in a country like Italy where we already spend, again in relation to GDP, around half of what is spent on healthcare in France and Germany.”
«This compromises – underlines Todde – not only the present but also the future of the healthcare system, and precisely at a time when it would be necessary and urgent to strengthen it, also given the call from the State Accounting Department to make the pre-arranged resources unavailable when the new tariffs come into force and those for the updating of the Lea – equal to 631 million euros for the year 2024 and 781 million euros starting from 2025 -, which until now had been used to cover other inefficiencies of regional healthcare, until the effective use of the same will be guaranteed for the purposes indicated by the regulations. At the Conference of the Regions – continues Todde – the government was asked for a formal commitment to eliminate defunding or to alternatively provide for the reinstatement of the funds, declaring itself ready to appeal to the Constitutional Court if such requests were to remain unheard. The health of citizens cannot be put on hold. It must be guaranteed in compliance with the art. 32 of the Constitution”. The president concludes: «I will not passively accept this decision. I ask the government to reconsider its priorities and put citizens’ health first. I will do everything in my power to fight this decision and ensure that the voice of the Sardinians is heard.”
