To guarantee the health of world leaders and their respective delegations, Puglia has reserved around 400 beds in its hospitals. From Perrino in Brindisi, where less complex situations will eventually be treated, to the Policlinico in Bari, for the most serious cases. Four local health authorities are involved – Bat, Bari, Brindisi and Lecce – in a health plan developed by the Region in coordination with Palazzo Chigi. The Italian presidency of the G7, for security reasons, has placed a veil of secrecy on the issue. And it has taken on all the healthcare activities related to the G7: in case of emergencies, collaborating with the prefectures of Bari and Brindisi, it will rely on the healthcare structures of the territories. In the largest hospital in the regional capital, the holidays of doctors and nurses have been suspended to ensure a massive presence of staff 24 hours a day.
Following the indications received from the institutions, the managers of the Polyclinic have issued an internal circular of which Open has received news: hospitalizations and non-urgent surgeries for ordinary citizens need to be postponed. A stop that lasts for the five days around the summit. And which, by a curious chronological coincidence, arrives a week after the government’s Waiting Lists decree: the measure which has the ambition – without resources – to shorten precisely those waiting lists which in Puglia will become longer due of the summit of heads of state. Sources at the Polyclinic assure that the impact on ordinary care is minimal and they expect to quickly recover the operations postponed due to the G7.
The health security of world leaders has meant that the Bari hospital has reduced the number of beds in intensive care, surgery and emergency medicine. One question remains unanswered: why haven’t new beds been set up, rather than blocking existing ones, as was done during the Covid emergency? However, the suspension of ordinary hospitalizations, which does not concern cancer patients, does not translate into a total interruption of the activities of the departments concerned. And it does not affect the disposal of diagnostic imaging tests, one of the main issues in the waiting list issue. The scrolling of the waiting lists is not paralysed, therefore, but only slowed down due to the indication of the leaders to postpone some scheduled operations. Sources from the Polyclinic guarantee that patients will find places as soon as the G7 bandwagon has left Puglia. Then, the secure access routes set up for the possible hospitalization of world leaders will also be dismantled.
