“SOS Sanità”, meeting at Palazzo dei Bruzi to take stock of the situation

“The reality is very different from that told by Commissioner Occhiuto. Slogans, promises, proclamations, but the data continues to be dramatic. From November 2021 to today, the Calabrian healthcare situation has not improved at all and this is certified by Agenas, the monitoring of the Lea, the Court of Auditors and the various reports that always place Calabria in the last places. The situation is now out of control and it is unthinkable, in this way, to think of being able to exit the recovery plan.” This is what was declared yesterday by the president of the Cosenza municipal council, Giuseppe Mazzuca, during a meeting entitled “SOS Healthcare in Calabria. How to get out of it?”.
Present in the council chamber of Palazzo dei Bruzi were the mayor Franz Caruso, the provincial and municipal councilor Giuseppe Ciacco, the municipal councilors Chiara Penna and Concetta De Paola, the former commissioner of the ASP of Reggio Calabria Santo Gioffrè and Carlo Guccione, member of the National leadership of the Democratic Party.
From the problem of healthcare emigration which “continues to enrich the structures of the North” to the total absence of local medicine, from the lack of medical-health personnel to the closure of entire departments: they all agree in stating that “this is not the way to exit the repayment plan and 15 years of commissionership. The citizens continue to pay the greatest price.”
14 percent of Calabrians give up treatment, the infant mortality rate is 1.8 deaths per 1000 live births in Tuscany, in Calabria it is 3.9. “5 percent more people die from chronic diseases. In Calabria, healthcare is a consumer good: whoever has the money gets treatment. The ‘Ndrangheta totally conditions the “system”, but there are few of us left to denounce these things.” This was stated by Santo Gioffrè, the former commissioner of the ASP of Reggio Calabria who over the years tried to clarify things by denouncing what was happening within the health authority where, from 2005 to 2013 “there was no trace of economic-financial accounting of the Asp Reggina. Whoever had the obligation to check did not do so. In 2010, the Scopelliti era closed 18 hospitals, that evening 3 thousand beds were lost, the hiring freeze led to the loss of two generations of doctors and this has led today to the loss of entire departments. In the latest recovery plan, 37 complex structures are closed. The human factor is missing.” One thing is certain: “Differentiated autonomy will have devastating effects and will be detrimental to the healthcare system – declares mayor Franz Caruso -. The healthcare provision of the Cosenza area continues to be weakened. We don’t need proclamations but concrete actions. The structures need to be built, machinery and medical personnel are needed. The resources that arrive are not spent. And also on the new hospital in Cosenza: the Council approved the resolution following the indications of the Region’s feasibility study which had already indicated the area for the construction of the facility. Occhiuto made other choices, that’s fine. Do it wherever you want, but do it. We need everything but not to be made fun of by those who govern us.”
“It is necessary to take note of the situations that have consolidated in Calabria in these 15 years – says Carlo Guccione -. We have gone from a commissionership that was supposed to be short and efficient to Decrees that strengthened the commissioner’s powers. And now we are moving towards yet another Healthcare Operational Plan: 2025-2028. The “extraordinary” has become “ordinary”. It is necessary to unmask the interests and logic behind this system.”
Everyone agrees in rejecting the commissioner system and the actions of the Occhiuto management. “The issue concerns all parties and we need to go beyond political colours. We need to form a united front to defend the right to health of the Calabrians.” “We – underlines Giuseppe Mazzuca – are willing to lend a hand but not to be complicit in the misfortunes and mistakes that the super commissioner continues to make. Every time we extend a hand to him, it seems, he turns his back on us.”