REGGIO CALABRIA The new Territorial Operations Center (Cot) of the Provincial Health Authority of Reggio Calabria was inaugurated today, which will have the task of «as a hinge between the structures present in the hospital system and those we have in the territories, both directly managed structures and those of the third sector with which we have agreements”. This was explained during the inauguration which took place in the offices in via Willermin, the general director of the Asp Reggio Lucia Di Furia according to which «the fundamental characteristic of the Cot is that of interfacing with Gom with which we must work in synergy for the citizens who leave the hospital. For example, the Orthopedics department will have to promptly report to the Cot the patients who are discharged in order to activate the evaluation unit and decide to direct them, if it is not possible at home, to some residential facility with the characteristics required for that type of assistance”.
Per the extraordinary commissioner of Azienda Zero Gandolfo Miserendino, «the Cot will facilitate the discharge of patients from hospital to home. We are trying to bring together the resources provided by the regional healthcare system, and in this case the Pnrr, with a view to what will be the integration between the hospital and the territory”.
A first Cot in Calabria – the one in Reggio cost 253 thousand euros and was financed with Pnrr funds – was activated in recent weeks in Crotone. «They will be opened in all the Asp – added Miserendino -. This is the first in Reggio Calabria but then there will be others». «It is a first step of the Pnrr – explains Rubens Curia di Comunità Competente -. Today there is the Cot which is a piece of the mosaic. Then there will be the community hospitals which will be very important. Finally the company takes charge of the citizen’s health and offers a service».
Second the director of Gom Gianluigi Scaffidi«the territorial operations centre is a very important tool because it acts as an intermediary between the needs of the hospitalised patient who must be discharged and the structures in the area. Until now, this task was left, in an artisanal way, to relatives, chief physicians and family doctors who had to find a solution. From today, through the Cot, our departments, starting with Orthopaedics, will have an interlocutor who takes care of placing the patient when he is discharged and allowing him to complete the care path”. Even in private structures which, according to Scaffidi, «also serve this purpose, that is, on the one hand to complete the treatments and on the other to decongest the hospitals. It is a better way for care responses. There is no need to be prejudiced against the private sector because it is paid for with public money. Obviously it shouldn’t be said that everyone will find the place because this depends on the availability in the area. And this is a problem because patients, if there are no places, go home. It’s not that with the opening of the Cot we have solved all the problems because Calabria has always had an undersized fund compared to other regions.” And in view of the differentiated autonomy “if the boundaries don’t change and it isn’t managed by people I don’t see it badly”, is the comment of the director of the Gom. (ANSA photo)
