No orthopedist in the evenings and on holidays at the “Vittorio Emanuele” hospital in Gela, a city of 75 thousand inhabitants, not even a surgeon at night and on days marked in red. A road accident – last night in Montelungo – was enough to reveal all the flaws in a healthcare system that is going haywire. A 20-year-old girl was seriously injured: a displaced fracture of the femur and elbow, as well as a lesion of the sacrum. So far the medical situation, then the drama: no orthopedist in the ward to align the leg, nor therefore the possibility of hospitalization.
So he was transferred to the Caltanissetta hospital. But here too, no orthopedic admissions due to lack of beds and storage in the emergency room waiting for some places to become available. A road accident in a big city was enough to bring out what is wrong with the organization of work in a hospital where there is a lack of staff and what is there is not called upon to guarantee continuous assistance at night and on holidays.
An atavistic shortage of medical personnel at the Gela hospital with a clear reduction in the number of beds open for hospitalization. Without doctors in the ward, it is difficult to guarantee adequate healthcare, so patients are forced to travel for treatment, increasing healthcare mobility with a significant financial outlay for the Caltanissetta ASP.
