PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – A comparison between different institutional actors to reflect on the role and challenges of the Healthcare supply chain: it was promoted by Unicredit, in a meeting held at the Palermo-Enna Chamber of Commerce to explore the growth opportunities not only of companies, but also of the south in a scenario that risks seeing the gap with the north widen in the coming months. The main concerns are linked to the expiry of the southern tax exemption and the entry into force of differentiated autonomy: the hope is that the best solutions will be found for the South, especially in the healthcare sector. Alongside political measures, another element at the center of the discussion is the flight of young people towards the north, to look for work or continue their studies there. The event was attended by the Regional manager of Unicredit Salvatore Malandrino, the president of the Palermo-Enna Chamber of Commerce Alessandro Albanese and the president of Confindustria Sicilia Gaetano Vecchio; after the greeting addresses, a round table was held on the “Future of the healthcare supply chain in Sicily”, moderated by the Italpress journalist Salvatore Trapani.
“This is the first forum that we organize in Sicily, focusing on the Healthcare supply chain, which here does not have significant numbers – explains Malandrino, – We are talking about 3 thousand profit entities and 4 thousand non-profit entities, a smaller size than the national average but also the Noon. This determines a lower capacity in terms of efficiency and investments, as well as in seizing the opportunities deriving from the ecological and digital transition: it must however be said that among these realities there are some excellences, because the large realities are more profitable even compared to the national average”. According to the Regional manager of Unicredit, there are two aspects to keep an eye on: “The lower birth rate and the migration of young people towards the north will have a significant impact on the growth of the elderly population and inevitably on its healthcare needs: the Our group is ready to seize the challenges and opportunities of this scenario, through financial support for businesses”.
For Albanese “at a time when we are concretely talking about differentiated autonomy, healthcare becomes even more central, because it deals with the customer’s life in a timely manner: organization and vision are needed, without demagogic or ideological approaches which inevitably end up turning into taxes for the citizens. The recent laws on waiting lists have made us understand that public healthcare has failed, not so much due to the inability of managers or the lack of resources but because investments are significantly lower than in the private sector: we must reverse this trend to make so that especially in Sicily, beyond the controversies over differentiated autonomy, there is a different approach. Leaving more space for private healthcare also means giving the possibility of providing more services.”
Vecchio’s opinion is even clearer: “Businesses in southern Italy are experiencing an unprecedented emergency and no one is doing anything: the southern tax exemption will expire on 30 November, making that attempt to bridge the gap between territories disappear. We need to make the country cohesive, but with differentiated autonomy the North will be able to continue to move fast and the South will not.” The risk, for the president of Confindustria, is that the south of Italy will also become the south of Europe: “The issue of cohesion is central both nationally and internationally: having given the majority of Pnrr funds to the South is not a gift, but an attempt to compensate for the gap on an economic level. Europe understood before Italy that to have overall development we must start from the less developed areas: either we bridge this difference or the gap between territories will widen more and more. In the south there is less infrastructure and a lower per capita income, if the country is not made homogeneous we will continue to be a pool of intellectual manpower: we will have our children graduate in northern Italy and then we will send them to work there or in northern Europe. We must rather create development in the south. by growing businesses and not displacing people.”
The president of Aiop Sicilia Barbara Cittadini also participated in the event, underlining how “our challenge is to give a timely and efficient response to Sicilians’ demand for health: in this sense the Schifani government is taking significant action and also we want to make our contribution. Managing the pandemic phase put me in front of an Italy capable of working as a team on the health front: at that moment I hoped for a change in ideological and cultural approach, but very little remained of that synergy. The Aiop social report attests that the sector creates added value, which we could further increase to promote efficient, supportive and fair public healthcare through a virtuous synergy with the public law component”.
photo: xd8/Italpress
(ITALPRESS).
