Agrigento, no one accompanies the patient for dialysis: he lives in the hospital

June 24, 2024, 7.23pm

2 min read

AGRIGENTO – Forced to stay admitted to the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in Agrigento because there is no longer an association of volunteers to accompany him 4 times a week to the dialysis center of Villaggio Moses.

Odyssey for a disabled sixty-year-old from Porto Empedoclewho over time suffered the amputation of both legs.

The association, due to staff shortagesncan no longer provide patient assistance and transfer services towards the dialysis center of Villaggio Moses and since Friday 14 June the empedoclin has been admitted to the Medicine department.

The wife: “We are in prison”

“We are in prison – said Irene Alaimo who has been taking care of her husband for a decade – . We came with the 118 ambulance to do dialysis since there was no longer any assistance available from the association who always brought him to Villaggio Moses. On Saturday the 15th, my husband had to do dialysis again and we stayed in the hospital. Since then we have been here, in prison.”

A hospitalization in the Medicine operating unit which also takes away a bed space from anyone who may need it.

“Indeed, nothing to say about the doctors in the Nephrology, Medicine and Surgery departments of the San Giovanni di Dio hospital because they do everything possible for my husband and me. I thank the doctors, operators and nurses“, added Irene Alaimo who also turned to the lawyer Luigi Troja for assistance and help.

“Ours is a problem of ASP services. It is possible that such a patient, – explains the woman – stay like this in a hospital bed?”.

The ASP: “Working to solve the problem”

“We are trying to accelerate the practice of stairliftingthere is a safety problem and we need to talk about it with an engineer to understand if a stairlift is safe for a patient of this weight (119 kilos)”, explained the general director of the ASP of Agrigento, Giuseppe Capodieci.

“We have a problem with ambulance licensing. We have contacted the voluntary association to resolve the staff shortage as soon as possible, otherwise we will be forced to revoke their authorization. We are moving 360 degrees. In the meantime, the patient will be transferred from the medical department to the long-term care departmentwhere he will continue to have dialysis assistance.”