The establishment of pediatric clinics on holidays and days before holidays in the hospitals of Agnone, Termoli, Isernia and Campobasso is an important step, but it does not definitively solve the problem in upper Molise where, for over nine months, there has been no free-choice pediatrician who covered service from Monday to Friday. The announcement made by the commissioner structure in fact remains a palliative for the parents of around 500 children of the territory, who still today are forced to turn to professionals from Campobasso and Isernia for pediatric consultations.
Basically she put on a piece but a situation that deserves greater consideration has not been remedied, especially given that we are talking about newborns. The many mothers and fathers of the twelve municipalities on the border with Abruzzo who continue the battle alone are asking for it forcefully. Parents who, to avoid trips to other centers, have often adopted remote consultations via video calls or phone calls with trusted paediatricians. An expedient which, however, does not work for urgent cases which require the physical presence of a specialist.
“We welcome the latest news of the establishment of pediatric guards on holidays and days before holidays – a father tells us – but at the same time we cannot continue to live in terror when one of our children needs to be visited in the span of the week. Once again we appeal to the Asrem leaders and the regional political class to work to resolve once and for all what has become a real emergency which does not make us feel calm. It is clear that living in a peripheral area such as upper Molise, where travel remains difficult due to the orography and very precarious roads – adds the parent – is not the same as those who live in more central and with more services available. The presence of a primary care pediatrician is not a privilege, but rather a sacrosanct right. Understanding this concept – concludes the father – is fundamental and at the same time must go beyond the logic of cold numbers that penalizes us”.
In recent months the theme has also seen the Church take to the field with the director of the diocesan Caritas of Trivento, Fr. Alberto Conti who in an interview with the newspaper ‘Avvenire’ spoke of a real “drama which does nothing but encourage the devastating phenomenon of depopulation”.
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