It’s a moment to go from the starred restaurants, the yachts and the social life of Porto Cervo to the emergency room in Olbia where people are crowded together for hours (the unluckiest for days) without receiving a doctor’s visit or knowing the results of their tests. analyses. This is also what happened to an American citizen, a friend of Michela Morellato who tells us this story, who spent 24 hours on an iron chair and explained her “nightmare” to us. But where have the investments in post-pandemic healthcare and the welcome from Open to Meraviglia gone?
Menter the G7 we eat at the expense of us taxpayers, we are at the hospital Olbia with local people treated worse than a dog abandoned on the side of the road. For a few days I have been in the beautiful location of Porto Cervo in Sardinia. A place known for its social life, starred restaurants, yachts, luxury and beautiful people… but you have to pray that you feel good or that you don’t get hurt! Let’s go through this sad story, a perfect reflection of current Italy. In fact, I brought an American friend of mine to visit with my family, we ate in excellent restaurants, participated in regatta events, paid taxi double if not triple the ordinary fare in other Italian cities. We have known Sardinia for years, but we never thought we would experience the hospital service first hand. However, at 2 am Gradey found himself with a strong attack of renal colic. He was taken away in an ambulance and remained in the emergency room for 12 hours without being seen by a doctor or knowing anything about his blood tests. They gave him a strong painkiller and he has it placed on an iron chair for 12 consecutive hours. But it didn’t end here.
Galready in the afternoon when we arrived, at 2.30 pm, the situation in the emergency room was embarrassing: a sort of third world after a natural massacre. I wondered how we could react in the case of war, but also simply in the case of a new pandemic? I thought we had learned something after Covid but instead it’s worse than before! A shame and an insult to all the victims of the pandemic (death in vain apparently). My friend Gradey Hosier asked me how people manage to survive in Italy and I have to admit I was ashamed. There is a lot of talk about the homeland and Italian pride, people come to our country thinking of spending a safe holiday, do you remember the political slogans? The much vaunted security? The one they locked you in the house for… While I was waiting for my friend to be discharged I was outside that door next to an elderly lady who was waiting to be able to see the husband who had been “parked” in a corner for four days in the emergency room with an oxygen mask on his face because they didn’t have any rooms for him. The Italian government has been aware of the critical health situations occurring at the Giovanni Paolo II hospital in Olbia since 2022 (if not before). In fact, it finds itself in a critical situation, as it has no doctors to cover shifts and the facility is without much other qualified staff. With over 60 thousand inhabitants and a significant seasonal influx of tourists, the emergency room in Sardinia’s fourth largest city is collapsing. The one in Olbia relies on “rented” doctors who cannot handle the most serious cases (the red codes) and on specialists from other departments urgently recalled by the ASL.
ORI’ll also tell you how my friend Gradey, 33 years old, a former American soldier, experienced this experience: “The hospital was overloaded, people groaned in pain in agony. The hospital medical staff walked alongside the suffering people trying to do everything possible, but the people were all crowded into the same rooms and there was no difference according to their pathology. It felt like I was living a nightmare, I would have paid anything to get treatment.” And again he explained to me: “Another image that stuck in my mind, and I say this as an American, was seeing the security guard she walked around the corridors armed. It seemed like he wanted to protect us patients inside the emergency room, but the truth is that the people in the entrance area just wanted to get information about their loved ones or try to understand the waiting times. It is truly uncivilized how citizens are treated of Olbia and tourists and it is scandalous that the Italian government does not understand that the Italian islands need maximum support, especially in healthcare, in order to protect the locals and us foreigners who bring income”. So, returning to the G7, Puglia is no exception either! The lack of adequate and trained staff causes healthcare facilities to struggle. Just in recent years, Puglia has recorded several cases of doctors moving from public hospitals to private clinics, not only for economic reasons, but also for greater competitiveness and possibility of access to diagnostic machinery. And while Giorgia Meloni dances the tarantaJoe Biden falls asleep on his feet and the powerful talk about where and how to spend our money, Puglia (for those who can afford it) is among the regions in Italy that pay the most for healthcare outside the region. To trust in a changeprobably, all we can do is hope for a big bellyache to some European or international leader in our tourist resorts.
