The director of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health of the Romagna Local Health Authority Raffaella Angelini is retiring. Born in 1958 in Forlimpopoli, Angelini lives and works in Ravenna, the city where she developed most of her managerial career after her medical training at the University of Bologna. In 2004 she was appointed health director of the Ravenna Local Health Authority, then in 2014 director of the public health department for the Ravenna area and, since 2015, for the Romagna Local Health Authority.
“From Saturday with the retirement of Dr. Raffaella Angelini, the national health service will be more fragile, especially as regards the challenges of prevention, which represent the true and main frontier of our commitment – greetings from Mayor Michele de Pascale – The esteem I have We have a long-standing bond with Dr. Angelini: we met for the first time in 2007 during the chikungunya emergency; at the time I was a young city councilor and medical student already very passionate about healthcare organization and she was the health director of the local health authority. of Ravenna. On that occasion I already had the opportunity to appreciate his determination and competence in dialogue with frightened citizens and local institutions, but also his firmness in encouraging politicians to assume contingent responsibilities, without ever going beyond their own role”.
English: “Ten years later, I as mayor, she as director of the Public Health department of the entire Romagna Local Health Authority, we faced together the moment of the introduction of mandatory pediatric vaccination, with heated meetings in which the public was made up of both parents legitimately eager to be informed and frightened by fake news about vaccines, but also by those who radically questioned the value of science and the competence of health workers. A composite phenomenon undoubtedly complex to manage and which would then become widespread with the Covid vaccine – continues de Pascale – And then came the Covid-19 pandemic, for two years Dr. Angelini faced the greatest challenge of the century for a health worker in our territory, facing with great competence, self-denial and courage a historic moment in which the Hygiene and Public Health service played a key role in the health of communities: in the first phase with the surveillance of infections, contact tracing, epidemiological investigations, health surveillance of positive cases, information to citizens, management of swabs, data collection, constant communication with general practitioners and local administrations; in the second phase with the management and coordination of the massive vaccination campaigns, so fundamental for public safety. An undertaking that was nothing short of titanic. And finally, I remember the commitment during and after the flood, when it was necessary to organize extraordinary tetanus vaccination sessions for some areas in particular”.
“I would like to thank Dr. Angelini and offer her my most sincere wishes on behalf of myself and the entire community of Ravenna, for this new and well-deserved season of her life – concludes the mayor -, may it be full of serenity and joy, in the knowledge that now it is up to us to give continuity to her extraordinary professional commitment, certain that when we fail in something, she will still offer us her invaluable opinion with sincerity and energy”.
