The compensation of the healthcare deficit passes through an Extraordinary Regional Council, convened for Thursday. Then the accounts will be presented at the national table
The centre-right majority in the Abruzzo Region has speeded up the time needed to present itself at the national monitoring table, convened for May 27th, with the plan to make up for the deficit in healthcare produced by the four Abruzzo local health authorities which amounts to over 122 million euros. Today the “Budget, General and Institutional Affairs” Commission, meeting in L’Aquila to examine the resolution with which the Council allocated approximately 68 million euros for the return, limited the time of the discussion by setting the deadline for presentation at 12pm tomorrow of the amendments and the vote on the measure on Thursday at 3 pm (the meeting is scheduled for 10.30 am). The urgent meeting of the Regional Council is scheduled for 4pm. Same fate for the other regulatory proposal, signed by the President of the Regional Council, Lorenzo Sospiri, which intends to modify various laws in force in application of the principle of loyal collaboration. Of the 122 million deficit, approximately half were covered with administration surpluses and other savings which in any case will have to be restored in order not to lower the level of services in the various sectors. The discussion on the extraordinary item on the agenda, dedicated to the plan proposed by the Council for covering the deficit of the health service, and that on loyal collaboration, went on until 5pm: the Councilor for Health, Nicoletta, was heard. Verì, the director of the Health Department, Claudio D’Amario, the budget councilor, Mario Quaglieri, together with the directors of the department Ebron D’Aristotile and Fabrizio Giannangeli. The discussion was preceded by the intervention of the opposition councillors, who asked to postpone both the discussion on the “healthcare” PDL and Sospiri’s proposal on loyal collaboration to another day.
The president of the Budget Commission, Vincenzo D’Incecco, underlined the urgency of the measures and reiterated the procedural regularity, starting the legislative debate. The need to limit the time and send the regulatory proposals to the vote in the Chamber within 48 hours was confirmed by the Conference of Group Leaders, meeting during a break in the Commission’s work.
D’AMICO: “RACE AGAINST TIME, BUT STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS” – “The centre-right majority’s race against time is a race against time to resolve Abruzzo’s healthcare bills in the red by May, as requested by the ministerial table. During the Commission, Councilor Nicoletta Verì underlined the ‘structural’ nature of the ASL deficit, while continuing to propose ‘extraordinary’ and non-repetitive coverage tools. This makes a general rethinking of the management of the regional health system necessary and urgent, especially since the performance of services to citizens is not related to the deficit values: expenditure is exceeded, but the services, instead of increasing and improving, tend to decrease and worsen”: this is stated by the group leader of the regional opposition, Luciano D’Amico, who continues: “The verification and control activity carried out by the Ministry has led the Abruzzo Region to cover the spending deficit and the centre-right as a solution he is planning, among other things, a linear cut of which the details are not well known and which certainly will not translate into additional services for the community. All this while the people of Abruzzo are dealing with very long waiting lists, a reduction in healthcare services and a shortage of staff which affects the service to users” he concludes.
