“The cuts do not penalize citizens and workers.” This is what CGIL Abruzzo Molise and FP Cgil Abruzzo Molise say regarding the healthcare deficit of the Abruzzo Region.
The two trade unions presented a written memorandum to the first commission of the regional council on Thursday 23 May in view of the imminent approval of PdLR 6/2024 for the coverage of the regional health deficit accumulated by the local health authorities in the 2023 financial year.
With this memorandum, the CGIL asked the members of the commission to prevent the economic cuts that will have to be activated from penalizing the citizens and workers of Abruzzo, but instead from being implemented on those budget items that represent waste of public resources, easily identifiable in the budget forecast of the Abruzzo Region for the years 2024-2026.
The risk, the union claims, is that health services for citizens will be further cut in an already exhausted system, in which the right to treatment is less and less guaranteed. In fact, article 2 of the regional bill under consideration introduces the obligation on the part of the regional local health authorities to prepare rationalization plans within 30 days of its approval for the purpose of covering the deficit. The CGIL requests that these rationalization plans do not provide for staff cuts or the blocking of the ongoing stabilization processes of temporary staff and that the employment of workers contracted to cooperatives or companies providing complementary healthcare services be preserved. This is necessary not only in order to safeguard employment, but above all to avoid a decrease in healthcare services, in qualitative and quantitative terms, for citizens. To guarantee this, it is necessary for local health authorities to address the issue of rationalization through a process shared with the social partners and proceeding with maximum transparency.
«In addition to this», we read in the note from the trade union organization, «the union’s concern also derives from the possibility, foreseen in the bill under discussion, that the coverage of the deficit occurs by reducing expenses with a destination restriction which may also include those relating to the provision of TFR/Tfs of employees of the Abruzzo Region. This is a possibility that the CGIL asks not to be implemented for two reasons: on the one hand, the aforementioned provision fund is fed through the contributions paid by the workers; on the other hand, this operation of diverting resources, although legitimate in exceptional situations, still requires them to be repaid at the first available opportunity, which in the current state of affairs is not easily conceivable. The CGIL Abruzzo Molise and the FP Cgil Abruzzo Molise hope that the recently elected regional council will be able to manage this difficult phase, avoiding a further impoverishment of Abruzzo’s healthcare system and a worsening of workers’ conditions.”
