The objective of this multi-specialist reality just inaugurated in the Abruzzo city is to guarantee universality of care: over 30 retired doctors are active.
With public health in collapse, the subject of ferocious cuts from left to right, the inauguration of Kum Of Teramo represents a breath of fresh air and a fundamental step forward in the right to health. The center of supportive medicine, housed in a municipally owned property in via Potito Randi, was officially inaugurated in the presence of the mayor Gianguido D’Alberto. The mission behind this project is fundamental.
Kum Teramo: solidarity medicine for everyone
The result of the joint work of the Kum association, the municipality and the local branch of Auser, the association for active aging, the multi-specialist practice offers free diagnostic services to all those people in economic difficulty who are unable to get treatment. The staff working in the via Randi facility is made up of doctors who are now retired and available to provide help to the community.
They immediately became active over 30 doctors specialists in internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonology, neurology, rheumatology, endocrinology, dermatology, diabetology, general surgery, cardiac surgery, thoracic and vascular surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, urology, gynecology, psychiatry and psychology. Patients in difficult situations will be referred to Kum by the municipal social services, Caritas, the canteens and all the other associations that operate in this sector on a daily basis.
“The initial group of doctors who made themselves available has grown thanks to new members – explains Giovanna Zippillipresident of the association –, just as the number of nurses and volunteers who will carry out this project with us has grown. We thank the mayor for always believing in us, the councilors Ilaria De Sanctis and Pina Ciammariconi, who accompanied us along the entire journey, the director of the ASL Maurizio Di Giosia for the support he gave us, all the offices that worked together with us and all those who have been and are with us in the realization of this project”.
The objective of the study is to ensure theuniversality of care and address all those “invisible” people who are not intercepted by public health. The joint work of the association, Auser and administration was made possible thanks to the poverty table established jointly, where those entities that deal with combating social hardship are brought together.
Health poverty, Kum of Teramo offers a remedy
Taking care of yourself is now a luxury in Italy. The 11th report Donate to heal reveals that, during 2023, 427,177 people have requested assistance from one of the 1,892 entities affiliated with Banco Farmaceutico (the organization that recovers medicines from donors and companies and distributes them to thousands of charitable facilities) to obtain free treatment and medicines, highlighting an increase of 10.6% compared to 2022 .
“The associations will send those in need to the municipality’s social workers, to fill out a specific form and book the visit – clarifies the professor Renato Gregorinicoordinator of Kum doctors –. The only direct access will be that of patients who will be sent by the general practitioner, who knows his patients and their possible state of economic and social hardship. In that case, once the doctor sends the patient to us, the form will be filled in by the social worker present within Kum”.
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