The provincial AVIS denounces the critical issues of the summer period and, in particular, the closure of peripheral centers due to lack of staff.
“Summer is coming” we could write, paraphrasing the famous Righeira song, it’s holiday time, and sometimes respecting the schedule of holiday days can create some disruption.
This is the case reported to us by the provincial AVIS of Fermo whose presidency is held by Elena Simoni who says «the moment we find ourselves living as an association of volunteers for blood donation is becoming quite difficult. The continuous closures of the peripheral collection centers of Montegiorgio, Montegranaro, Sant’Elpidio a Mare and Porto San Giorgio due to the lack of both medical and nursing staff is causing havoc in the management of donors.
The calls made from the single center of the Provincial Avis, created to optimize access to the donation and the management of the blood groups necessary in the period, becomes a call center to notify the donor that the day of his booking has been cancelled.
These events are not sporadic, they are becoming almost a practice and in the long run, in addition to debasing the efforts made by the municipal Avis in the search for new donors, there could be (if it has not yet happened) a disaffection with the donation of those who always make them available to avoid a possible blood shortage.
In a period like the summer, in which the need for transfusions becomes even greater to meet emergencies secondary to large holiday trips, such as the increase in road accidents, the closures may be complicit in a failure to respond to the need of blood.
The staff who provide assistance and service to blood and plasma donors are doctors and nurses employed by the AST of Fermo who, due to the shortage of staff and to respect the holiday shifts, are forced to cut the days of operation of our centers”.
The collection centers that will suffer the greatest inconvenience will be those of Montegiorgio, Montegranaro, Porto San Giorgio and Sant’Elpidio a Mare.
A question presented several times by the Provincial AVIS of Fermo to the Director of the AST of Fermo, Dr. Roberto Grinta, to the Administrative Director Dr. Massimo Esposito who, at the open table, and in particular at the last meeting which took place on 12/06/2024 with the presence also of the President Avis Marche Dr. Daniele Ragnetti, have shown maximum availability by undertaking a series of very important interventions to allow the collection of blood and plasma in the times and ways that this requires.
The selection for a laboratory technician, the competition for the hiring of a permanent and a fixed-term doctor, the extension for 3 years of the fixed-term contract of the doctor already working in the transfusion center (expiring in September), should lead to to interrupt the series of closures at the peripheral collection centers.
Furthermore, maximum attention is paid to the mountain area, with the promise of activation of the Amandola collection center within the new Sibillini hospital by autumn. Since the 2016 earthquake, in fact, Avis dei Sibillini’s blood collection has taken place in a container.
“If the promises are turned into reality, continue the Avisini representatives, it will be possible to resolve the age-old problems exposed so far, in the absence of which we are obliged to implement all those initiatives that will be necessary in order to materialize the Avisina action: saving lives with the donation of blood and plasma”.
The provincial Avis has also requested the activation of a competition notice to cover the head of the blood transfusion operational unit, which from next August will have to be entrusted to an acting person, due to the retirement of the current manager.
In any case, we are convinced that everything will proceed in a positive direction, but we want to remind you once again that those who need blood to survive cannot wait for the bureaucratic process.
