Here we go again! Families traveling for healthcare services

The Committee of special parents of Altamura and other nearby cities is once again on the “front line”, in discussions with the Local Health Authority and local authorities, to avoid long journeys for families for the services provided for their children by the therapeutic plans. In fact, an issue already raised five years ago arises again, namely the decision to transfer to Puglia – for reasons of health spending – even those services that are now provided outside the region (especially in Matera). They are not enough for all the places in the new Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry where availability has increased but does not cover all the needs.

A few days ago Evita Salvaggiulo, president of the Special Parents Committee, and Mary Cristallo, vice president, were received at the Bari Local Health Authority.

“In recent days – they explain – many families have learned that the therapeutic plan of their children (we are talking about children with different pathologies) will no longer be able to have therapy outside the region. Many families in our area are forced due to the lack of affiliated centers and the few places in the Altamura Neuropsychiatry (just inaugurated) to emigrate to Matera which in any case in our area has led to the coverage of those (about 150 families) in need of speech therapy, psychomotricity, orthoptics, in compliance with regional provisions (and to save on extra-regional costs), from 1 June he decided to move the therapies to the first closest regional rehabilitation center in Puglia, to Adelfia, to San Giovanni Di Dio.

“For this reason – they add – a delegation from the committee of special parents met with the leaders of the ASL and a promise was reached: the children who have already undertaken a course at the Matera affiliated facility will continue to be followed in that structure, while for the new ones taken in care they will have to go to Adelfia. The Committee asks the AsI to understand if the new structure offers services adequate to the needs of the territory (i.e. has a complete staff available: speech therapists, orthoptics, psychomotor therapists, psychologists). ). The ASL has promised us to be able to visit the structure, in the meantime we have preserved those who have already started a journey in Matera, no one will move from there… and we clearly ask that the public service be strengthened and that the service be provided. territory, so vast, of a center under agreement, which does not exist here, has never existed. For this reason, we asked for the support of the administrations of the Municipality of Altamura and Gravina in Puglia, who joined us with concrete actions. We will not allow – they conclude – the logic of passing the buck to be worked on the skin of our children and on other children, even younger ones”.