Public health, the letter from the doctors: “Do not get sick because soon no one will be able to cure you”

«Dear Italians, try not to get sick because soon there will be no more doctors to treat you. If you can afford health insurance, start inquiring about how to buy it, because in the near future the National Health Service will no longer be able to guarantee the benefits you will need. And if you can’t afford a policy, try to set aside some savings for when you have to do some analysis, a specialist visit or an X-ray, because sooner or later you will be forced to pay them out of your own pocket ». At the beginning of the pandemic they were heroes today they are mostly forgotten doctors. This is also the origin of the letter that the Cimo-Fesmed Federation medical union addressed to Italian citizens to denounce the difficult situation in which national health care is today (and will be found in the future).

“In silence and general indifference”, the letter continues, “public health is being dismantled every day. Not even the rude awakening caused by the pandemic, once the moment of applause and thanks to the health personnel has passed, has not helped to understand the importance of investing in the National Health Service. The short-sighted policy continues to ignore health problems, once again at the bottom of the Government’s agenda, which plans to allocate a percentage of GDP even lower than pre-Covid levels to the protection of the health of the population, leaving us among the European countries who invest less in health. The Update Note to the Economics and Finance Document just approved by the Council of Ministers in fact further resizes health expenditure for the next three years, making it almost impossible to operate the homes and community hospitals envisaged by the PNRR and exceed that expenditure ceiling at the personnel who prevent the hiring of doctors, nurses and other health professionals’. It means ever more crowded emergency rooms, ever longer waiting lists, ever less rapid ambulances, ever more reduced personnel.

The main cause of the discomfort you have to suffer every time you go to an ASL, a hospital or an emergency room is the lack of doctors and health professionals. We are too few to do everything, but in order to try to help everyone we work in dramatic conditions, unsustainable for long periods, covering shifts for 15-18 hours, without being able to enjoy rest and holidays, with the fear that fatigue will lead us to err. And as soon as there is a possibility of escape from public hospitals we are forced to grasp it reluctantly, because this is the life we ​​had chosen to lead and loved. A life that unfortunately has become unacceptable, which puts our own health at risk ».

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:

-The Stories We Are, Cristina Cenci: “Working in the hospital today is exhausting”

-The Stories We Are, Costanza: “The second life after heart transplant”

Source: Vanity Fair

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