There is something even more serious – at least on a symbolic level – than the announcement given to the microphones of Etv by the regional councilor for Welfare Guido Bertolaso of the definitive collapse of the Menaggio hospital as it has been known so far, given that it will lose its Emergency Room and will become a facility for chronic patients. And that something more serious is the almost furtive way in which not only Bertolaso, but the entire Lombardy Region – members of the council and majority first and foremost, starting with those from Como – attempted to push through the definitive overturning of the Menaggi garrison.
After years of battles by the local mayors to avoid total weakening, after the commitment of a local committee set up specifically to defend the structure tooth and nail, after the reassurances and pats on the back from the many centre-right politicians who they went up to the threshold of Erba-Renaldi to say that “no, the hospital is important, we promise it won’t be touched”, after 14 thousand signatures collected from the population, immediately after the European elections (another shameful detail) the the council led by the Northern League member Attilio Fontana strikes Menaggio through Bertolaso.
And how does he do it? First of all, on the sly, without even a formal moment – if not exactly institutional – that could at least frame such an important communication for the territory. And then even without an explanatory statement, without a note, without a single official word either from the prolific Asst Lariana or from the enormous communication machine of Palazzo Lombardia which instead today – ironically – informed through President Attilio Fontana that “the file electronic healthcare 2.0 will allow the system to change pace”. Apart from this almost grotesque detail, here is the magical regional communication panzer, with its local and personal ribs, usually so verbose and generous with photos and kilometre-long papyri when photos of the yet another inauguration from a black and white newsreel, he falls silent. On the day in which the public hospital of an area of around 35 thousand people loses its substantial original function (and perhaps much of its meaning), not even a miserable line. Nothing, zero. The Menaggio hospital has been condemned, but it’s better not to say it too much.
And it didn’t end here. Because it’s not just the elimination of the emergency room that’s in the news today. There is, as a reminder, the announcement of the creation of a sort of unitary central-Alto-Larian hospital center between what remains of Menaggio and the Gravedona hospital, so as to try to guarantee emergency services to the population of lake. Too bad for a “small” but not negligible detail: Moriggia Pelascini is private and with this move once again in Lombardy the balance and center of gravity of healthcare are moving out of the public sphere. Of course, it is completely obvious that the main health services will be guaranteed and accredited, and that therefore a substantial public function will still be performed (and God forbid). But, in fact, the Lombardy Region places the fate of another slice of public health in the hands of a private entity, and therefore places it in its legitimate health and economic strategies. With many greetings to Menaggio, to its historic hospital, to the inhabitants of the entire surrounding area and to the thousands of tourists who perhaps need more healthcare, not less. But for those who live or holiday on the lake, from now on the urgency is no longer so urgent. And if it really were, every now and then, there is still the busiest state road in Lombardy to go to the emergency room, right?
