It seems too late to do anything about the emergency room.Saint Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori”. Time’s up: as announced by the “San Pio” hospital, starting tomorrow the hospital will close its doors at 6pm to reopen them only at 8 in the morning. The mayors are on a war footing and contest the management’s decision. «The decision to close the emergency room at night is absolutely unacceptable. Accidents and illnesses do not go on holiday, nor do they have set times. It is a measure which, as conceived, appears like a slap in the face to those territories” thunders the mayor Clemente Mastella. «It is certainly true that demagogic fury must be avoided, because the issue of staff shortages in hospital facilities in general and in emergency departments in particular has become alarming on a national level and even devastating in internal areas and in smaller hospitals – continues the mayor -. However, it is the duty of the San Pio management to seek different solutions: synergy and collaboration with the local health authority or other hospital structures could be useful. The night closure is neither a solution nor a logical way out: it is a defeat.”
THE REACTIONS
«The reduction of emergency room hours is not acceptable – denounces the mayor of Sant’Agata de’ Goti Salvatore Riccio -. This Administration cannot remain indifferent when faced with a problem which, for the umpteenth time, affects the community, the citizens, a very vast pool of users who benefit from the de’Liguori health services.” «Only a month ago – underlines Riccio – we had received guarantees regarding the total and continuous operation of the emergency room and emergency services. We would probably have been able to understand what was communicated to us if the measure to reduce acceptance hours had actually been temporary and short-lived. But a measure in which a start date is indicated but not an end date is not temporary. We have taken a step back and this regrets me but we will not stand by and watch.” Then there are those who, like the five minority councilors of Sant’Agata, appeal directly to the Prefect of Benevento. «We are forced to ask you for an authoritative intervention and interest – they write in a certified email Renato Lombardi, Nicoletta Vene, Luciano Iannotta, Giannetta Fusco and Carmine Valentino – regarding our numerous and unfulfilled requests and reports produced at the various levels of institutional competence regarding the dramatic condition of the hospital structure which is now further impoverished in services in the strategic emergency network: well we are reduced to the almost definitive operational closure of this structure”. The minority groups speak of an exasperated population because they see “their right to health protection or the possibility of enjoying essential health services, on equal terms with other populations in the area, irremediably compromised”. Hence the request to the Prefect for “a technical-institutional table aimed at avoiding the downgrading of the emergency room and the interruption of primary public services to be reported to the competent Public Prosecutor’s Office to also ascertain responsibility”. The Forza Italia deputy speaks of a “further slap in the face of Sannio”. Francesco Maria Rubano which invites citizens to Naples on Monday “to ask the President of the Region De Luca to be received and listened to”. «It is the consequence – he says – of the constant attitude of disinterest, for our province, of the governor and his allies in Sannio, in particular of the regional councilors who have not found, even on this occasion, the reasons for a burst of pride to protection of the legitimate interests of Sannio”. Rubano, turning to Mastella, says: «It is now clear that he places the protection of the health of the Samnites subordinate to the unchanged ambitions of power with respect to the regional council as the last resort to attempt to float in the control rooms. An attempt that will not be successful.”
THE SINKING
The position of the mayor of Dugenta lasts Clemente Di Cerbo which speaks of the epilogue of a story for which the tricolor bands of the district had expressed strong concerns more and more times. «I act as an interpreter – he says – of the concerns of citizens, of elderly people, of sick people who cannot live with the anxiety of not being able to get sick in a certain time slot, and then the time has come for someone to take responsibility and decisions are made that can no longer be postponed. I think it is completely unthinkable that a person can decide when to get sick and therefore, after 6pm or before 8am, what should a citizen do? Who has to tell us?”. «The right to health – adds Di Cerbo – cannot bow to political opportunism, let alone the strategy of electoral deadlines. I will promote a table with fellow mayors in a regional if not national location so that the discussions go beyond the local and provincial level which to date has been unable to do anything”.
