The strengths and weaknesses of the Lecco Healthcare System
“The progressive demographic decrease of recent years represents the main cause of the shortage of nurses in hospitals”
LECCO – I members of the Rotary Club Lecco they met Marco Trivelli, General Director of ASST Lecco, to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Lecco Healthcare System.
The Dr. Trivelli began by stating: “Healthcare is a complex system. The ASST of Lecco is just one of the elements of local healthcare, being part of a larger network of bodies and structures. With a long history behind it, the Lecco healthcare system today represents a consolidated reality of considerable value, which however experiences the same problems as healthcare in Lombardy and Italy but also in other nations”.
The speaker continued: “I would like to highlight, among the critical issues of the healthcare system, a change in perspective that occurred after the Covid-19 emergency. In this context, healthcare, previously focused on the treatment of the patient and his illness, has begun to be perceived by operators in the sector as a simple ‘service’. This orientation towards a service approach to illness leads people to delegate more. The true essence of healthcare lies in the vocation and dedication to medicine and therefore to the patient. We should not limit ourselves only to hospital services, which are of a high level in Lecco as in the whole of Lombardy, but we should aim to train professionals capable of dealing with the disease in its entirety, even when the patient leaves the hospital environment. Although there are numerous professionals with this mentality, unfortunately there are others who do not have it.”
Another evident problem in the healthcare context of Lecco concerns the shortage of nurses, underlined Marco Trivelli: “The progressive demographic decrease in recent years represents the main cause of the shortage of nurses in hospitals. In a few years we will find ourselves with a limited number of young professional nurses, called to take care of a large number of elderly people.”
To improve the healthcare system of Lecco, Dr. Trivelli underlined that: in addition to the economic aspects over which we have no direct control and at the moment there are no resources to intervene significantly, it is essential to focus on the cultural and social aspects”.
“Humanity must go hand in hand with professionalism. Attention to personal care is fundamental, even for small pains and sufferings, which are not experienced as such by the patient. Patient care should ideally begin in the area to reduce avoidable hospitalizations in the interest of the patient and the hospital itself, and then possibly continue after discharge, even outside the hospital, in collaboration with the general practitioner, because continuity of care is also fundamental from a psychological point of view for the patient” explained Francesco Locatelli, president of the Lecco Rotary Club.
