Doctors wanted for the emergency rooms of the four Pontine hospitals. Doctors also wanted for the General Medicine and Pediatrics departments of the hospital facilities in the province. Seeing the determination with the attachments published on the notice board of the ASL of Latina at the beginning of the summer makes one a little anxious.
Last year, the problem arose urgently in June: the risk of leaving the night shifts of the emergency department and other departments uncovered was real. For this reason, measures were taken at the regional level by giving the Local Health Authorities the power to activate long-term contracts with doctors’ cooperatives capable of taking charge of covering the night and holiday shifts that the insufficient staff in service was not able to cover. Obviously at a high price.
So? Has the problem recurred this year? No, or at least not with the same drama and not for now. The contracts in force with the doctors’ cooperatives will last until next August 31st and therefore the summer will pass without emergencies. But on that date the authorization for this type of agreement expires and therefore the Pontine ASL has moved forward so as not to find itself in difficulty at the beginning of September.
This explains the resolution and the six expressions of interest. In essence, doctors are being sought for the emergency rooms in Latina, Terracina, Fondi and Formia. For emergency medicine and pediatric departments. «A due act» transpires from the ASL offices. Also to try to reduce the use of services offered by medical cooperatives which are, let’s remember, very expensive as well as causing some problems with continuity of service. The token doctors work one evening in one hospital, one evening in another and not even always in the same province.
Of course the problem remains. The myriad of insolvency procedures with which the ASL hopes to replenish its workforce are moving forward. But the recent past teaches us that competitions often close without filling the places advertised and therefore it is useless to have any illusions. The reality is that there are fewer and fewer doctors willing to work in public health and especially in emergency departments.
The resolution recalls that «the managers of the company operating units of Emergency Room, General Medicine and Paediatrics, have repeatedly expressed the very serious shortage of medical personnel, also due to the sudden terminations of staff service, which puts the coverage of shifts at risk and of the guards, therefore the continuity of the carrying out of welfare activities and the essential levels of assistance at the facilities in question”.
The act also recalls that “the announcement of expressions of interest notices, for the satisfaction of the company’s hiring needs, given the difficulty of finding doctors of the aforementioned disciplines through the ordinary procedures and pending completion of the new public competitions which require a medium-long timescale, can prove to be a fast and effective tool for recruiting the staff necessary to guarantee the functioning of the structures”..
There is a week from the date of publication of the resolution (June 26) to respond and therefore at the beginning of July the ASL will know how many candidates there are to evaluate and possibly hire. For now, we are moving forward with the cooperative’s paid doctors who cost more than a thousand euros per shift. Perhaps this will also be discussed today at the conference of mayors for health called to approve the new company act. As if to say: theory is one thing, practice is quite another.
Victor Good morning
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The messenger
