FRANCAVILLA. After the petition with over 600 signatures presented by the M5S, to ask for the reinstatement of the doctor on board the 118 ambulance in Francavilla and the words of the mayor Luisa Russo, which has never done anything to hide its disappointment, the Chieti Local Health Authority explains in a note the reasons that led to this approach. «The decision to activate a non-medicalized 118 station in Francavilla was taken primarily in line with the national standards for the definition of the emergency-urgency network, which, based on the orography of the provincial territory, the road system and to the number of inhabitants, in the province of Chieti they would provide 6.4 118 medical stations”. And again: «According to regional planning, up until May 15th last, ten medicalized 118 stations were active in the same territory (including that of Francavilla, ed.), all with 24-hour hours, with the exception of that of Francavilla which operated with 12-hour hours in virtue of its proximity to the stations of Ortona, Chieti and Pescara Sud. Following the chronic and confirmed shortage of medical personnel qualified for emergency-urgency rescue and the simultaneous resignation of nine affiliated doctors serving at stations 118 in the province of Chieti , it has effectively become impossible to prepare the necessary shift schedule to guarantee the presence of the doctor at all 118 stations”. Then the ASL continues: «In light of these critical issues, it was necessary to outline a new organizational model for the 118 stations in Francavilla and Ortona, in line with the regulatory provisions. Ample and preventive information was given of this need to the select committee of mayors of the Lanciano Vasto Chieti local health authority during the meeting of 3 May, in which the mayor of Francavilla and the prefectural commissioner of Ortona were also invited to participate”. Then the ASL adds: «Also by virtue of the activity data of the 118 stations of Francavilla and Ortona, which do not highlight notable critical issues and which, above all, do not record large variations during the summer season, the ASL Lanciano Vasto Chieti with resolution of 14 May has provided for the temporary modification (from 16 May to 30 September) of the structure of the 118 stations of Francavilla and Ortona, providing for both an integrated “India” type (ambulance with driver and emergency nurse), where the 118 station takes over the necessity, with self-medication based at the emergency room of the Ortona hospital”.
Finally, the ASL also provides some data: in 2023 there were 1,657 interventions by the medicalized ambulance in Francavilla, of which 259 red codes, 1,250 yellow and 58 green. From the beginning of January to May 15 of this year, there were 515, including 94 red, 400 yellow and 21 green. In the last 40 days, from May 16 to June 26, the interventions carried out with the India ambulance (non-medicalized) were 220, including 11 red, 180 yellow and 29 green.
