CATANZARO «The CGIL has linked the theme of the defense and relaunch of the National Health Service, the right to health and protection for non-self-sufficient people to that of the so-called differentiated autonomy and the upheaval of the parliamentary Republic. For this reason we have undertaken a process of mobilization with the involvement of workers, citizens and associations precisely in defense of the right to work, education, health, assistance for non-self-sufficient people, which began in June last year with the demonstration in defense of public health, continued last Saturday with the national demonstration in Rome on “Health and Safety, right to care and public health” and which will continue with the next demonstration in Naples on 25 May”. This is what the regional general secretary of the CGIL, Angelo Sposato, Alessandra Baldari (general secretary of FP Calabria), Carmelo Gullì, (general secretary of Spi Calabria) and Francesco Masotti (FP CGIL Medici Calabria) stated in a joint statement. «On the NHS the “perfect storm” – they add – and the “signs” of its gradual but unstoppable decline are many: the persistent defunding (37 billion euros in cuts in the last 10 years), the inequalities and divisions created by 20 different regional health systems, the growing aging of the population and the progressive reduction of staff due to the early departure of tens of thousands of doctors and healthcare workers, with the difficulty, therefore, of being able to keep hospital departments open or to ensure basic assistance to citizens . According to data from the National Health Observatory, in the next ten years the NHS will find itself with around 25% less staff and there will be no point in “importing” foreign doctors or bringing retired doctors back into service. The serious situation of the Calabria which, already ten years after the regionalization of its healthcare, has fallen into a very heavy recovery plan, with negative repercussions in terms of hiring freezes and failure to respond to citizens’ health needs”. «To date – say the leaders of the sector categories of CGIL Calabria – we are implementing the fifth Operational Program without any concrete results: essential levels of assistance below the threshold of sufficiency and a healthcare migration that puts citizens in serious difficulty and empties regional coffers. A situation which, in the last four and a half years of leadership of the Region by the Calabrian centre-right, has worsened. This is attested by citizens who ask for assistance and treatment and is certified by the Lea monitoring system by Agenas and by independent bodies such as the Gimbe Foundation. AND, meanwhile, the Calabria continues not to spend to guarantee healthcare for its citizens. We strongly relaunch the commitment undertaken by the Presidency of the Regional Council, to date disregarded, to activate continuous discussion tables at the regional level first and then by the provincial health authorities in which to operate territorial socio-health bargaining, as an aspect of fundamental importance in the complex reorganization work of the Ssr. If the commitment undertaken is not respected, we will mobilize workers and citizens to defend and protect the right to treatment and assistance in the area.”
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