Covid: the hospital system in southern Italy falters

 

In Italy, the second wave of the coronavirus is once again bringing out the shortcomings and disparities of the national health system. Particularly concerned, the regions of Twelve o’clock, the transalpine “Midi”. This is how the region of Calabria found itself last week, alongside Lombardy or Piedmont, automatically placed by the central government in a “red zone”, synonymous with “high risk” in the face of the pandemic. In Pointe de la Botte, it is not so much the new cases detected daily (twenty times less than on the Lombard side) that worry as the multiple failures that overwhelm the Calabrian health structures for years and make fear the worst at the time. of the covid-19 crisis.

Another very palpable concern, this time in the Naples region. Relatively spared also during the first wave, Campania is today on the front line in the face of the pandemic: on average, 4,000 new cases are detected there every day and the positive screening rate exceeds the national average. These figures are particularly worrying in a region which has some of the highest population density in Europe (in Naples, there are three times more inhabitants per square kilometer than in Rome, the capital). Faced with the inexorable progression of the virus and after hard days of discussions, the Italian authorities finally decided on Friday to place Campania in the “red zone”, implying strong travel restrictions for the population, the total closure of bars and restaurants and the general switch to distance learning for many students in the area.

But according to some members of the Campanian medical staff, the problem is not limited to the sole management of the pandemic. “We are not worried about Covid patients, because there are dedicated structures. We still have beds available in intensive care [près de 30 % des places sont à l’heure actuelle occupées, selon le président de la région, Vincenzo De Luca NDLR] », Explains emergency physician Manuel Ruggiero. “We are especially worried about other patients, those of everyday life. Because the real alarm is in emergencies that it is found, this is where the system collapses, ”he continues, pointing to the structural deficiencies of the regional hospital system. “An example: the city of Naples, with a million inhabitants, has only seventeen ambulances, ten of which are medical. ”

Patients treated directly in their cars

For years lacking national investments, Campania is also lacking in resources. About 15,000 health professionals, estimates Silvestro Scotti, president of the Order of Physicians of Naples. “We will not find them like that, overnight,” warns the specialist, announcing all the same the registration with the Order of 200 new young graduates this week. “These days, we always talk about creating places in intensive care, but who will manage them? This is the real question, ”he worries.

These shortcomings, they have been illustrated in recent days by long queues, forming at the entrance of hospitals or by these patients treated directly in their cars, for lack of space in care structures. And the tension even rose a notch after the broadcast of a video showing the lifeless body of an octogenarian (positive for Covid and suffering from various pathologies) lying on the floor of the toilets of a Neapolitan hospital. “These are scenes of war,” said Walter Ricciardi, consultant for the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, on television. Even the amazement of the head of Italian diplomacy, Luigi di Maio, native of the region, saying that the situation in Campania was “out of control”.

The concerns are such that, this week, inspectors from the Ministry of Health and members of the NAS, the health protection service of Italian riflemen, were sent on a mission by Rome to four Neapolitan hospitals to draw up a concrete report of the situation. sanitary and epidemiological in the Parthenopean city. In recent hours, the executive has even considered sending the army and civil protection to enforce health rules in Neapolitan territory where social tensions are high.

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