Inside the Brotzu it continues to rain in the wet. Faced with the already huge and immense inconveniences of those who only see departments and doctors with binoculars due to the long waiting lists, those who are lucky enough to cross the threshold of the largest Sardinian hospital certainly fare no better. The first stone is thrown by Diego Murracino’s Nursing Up, the main union that protects nurses: “We denounce the situation of serious danger for the safety and health of patients and healthcare professionals and operators in the emergency surgery department. We have received a letter signed by 28 employees including graduate healthcare workers and social healthcare workers which highlights a situation of serious danger for the safety and health of patients and healthcare workers which deserves urgent intervention by the Company and the competent authorities. On 5 June the emergency surgery department was expanded, having incorporated the wing bordering the department itself with an increase from 18 to 35 beds. Officially the department is considered single and united but in practice the two lanes are divided by walls, fire doors and elevators without any direct means of communication, making team work and staff communication difficult. This important change in the department occurred without any clear directive and without adequate notice that would allow adequate organization of the staff and the necessary measures. In the new wing, patients who had undergone surgery and were in critical haemodynamic conditions were transferred to the new wing, without having adequate and sufficient number of monitors, functioning electrocardiographs, dressing and blood collection trolleys and therapy trolley”, explains Murracino.
“In this wing there is still no PC for computerized therapy, we had to return to prescribing paper therapy, which has been out of use for years and is not recommended by the guidelines as it presents a greater risk of error in the prescription and administration of the therapy itself. The emergency trolley is not equipped with a semi-automatic defibrillator necessary in a hospital department. Out of 19 beds in the second wing there are only 5 stations with the oxygen dispenser which are essential in the post-operative period. Also absent in the new department are the bedside tables and chairs in the patient rooms as well as the trolley for clean and dirty linen. Another major critical issue to point out concerns the lack of staff. The nursing staff, already insufficient before the expansion of the department, demoted and stretched to the limit over the years due to repeated lack of staff, now finds itself having to manage the two wings of the department with a significantly greater number of patients, without, however, there was a corresponding increase in the number of nurses on the ward. It should also be noted that newly hired and recently graduated colleagues were not guaranteed any necessary support in a surgery department. The consequence of this serious work-related malaise is the fact that in the last week, i.e. since the expansion of the department, there have been three resignations of the nursing staff. Another critical issue concerns the SS support staff, already lacking before the expansion of the department, also exhausted and exploited with requests for overtime shifts. When the number of beds in the department was doubled, the number of social and healthcare workers was increased by just one unit. Therefore hygiene, personal care, bed making and linen changing for the 35 patients, most of whom are bedridden, is carried out by only two health workers, who certainly cannot always guarantee the provision of basic assistance in consequence of the fact that they must also take care of other tasks including accompanying patients for urgent and non-extendable tests outside the department. This serious situation exposes patients and staff to a high risk of hospital-acquired errors and infections. The absence of the OSS figure on the night shift should be noted, which leads to both a lack of adequate assistance to the patient and the demotion of the nurse figure, as the nurse, with the exception of supervising the work of the OSS he is not required to provide basic care on a par with doctors and other healthcare professionals as demonstrated by the numerous sentences won by nurses. In addition to stress and tiredness, the nursing staff has been threatened with denunciation several times by patients and their relatives. Due to all this, there is a continuous climate of tension and confusion between the various healthcare professionals, which leads to difficult stress management, a situation that is not acceptable on the part of those who should guarantee physical and psychological health. Although these critical issues have been reported several times to the health and nursing management through letters and representatives, today we have not yet received adequate responses, rather we were told that we must give our best, that we must not complain because this work was our choice and that it is necessary to grit your teeth. In this way we are forced to give up the breaks we are entitled to, necessary to at least satisfy our primary physiological needs. At this point we reject these inadequate answers, and we reiterate that ours is and must be a dignified job, that we are health professionals with responsibilities for the health of patients of a qualitative and ethical nature, with civil and criminal responsibilities and that therefore errors and choices mistakes due to haste can lead to irremediable consequences”.
The transplant recipients also protest with the non-profit association Prometeo and with the new president Giorgio Pavanetto: “There is an emergency linked to the reorganization of work which requires that a wing of the seventh floor where Fausto Zamboni works, the west one, has been closed, making the beds are unusable*, attacks Pavanetto. “Ok seven days five transplants have been performed, but the transplant recipients themselves do not have access to the new intensive care room and are thrown away and left on the beds, in the corridors. We ask for the reinstatement of the medical nursing staff, we need to be constantly monitored. We are immunosuppressed. On Tuesday, after our requests and pressure, we will finally meet the new regional councilor and we trust that it will be the first step towards a reorganization and to guarantee the right and complete controls”.
