The fatal collision that occurred yesterday in Urbino, between an ambulance and a bus with children on board (who remained unharmed), is “a destructive event for all of us. We see an entire crew of the local emergency system die in service and also the patient they were transporting. A terrible death, if we think that the traumatic event of the accident was combined with the fact that the vehicle caught fire. We are deeply shaken.” These are bitter words with which Mario Balzanelli, national president of Sis118 (Italian 118 system company) comments to Adnkronos Health on the tragic accident in which a nurse, a rescue driver and a doctor lost their lives, together with the 85-year-old patient who was being transported in the ambulance. “Another massacre of forgotten 'lifesavers'”, he thunders.
What happened “calls attention to the need to consider the objective risk that 118 operators face, which we face”, says Balzanelli who at the moment he speaks is traveling in a medical car. “By going at high speed to be quick, to arrive first and save one more life – he explains – we are objectively exposed to an environmental risk and even mortal risks, as yesterday's accident demonstrates in all its drama. All this must be recognized at the level of a specific environmental risk indemnity. We have loudly requested this from various governments, on several occasions. Since 2017, we have been incessantly asking for this environmental and death risk to which no one is subject to be recognised. of our hospital colleagues. Because we are the ones who run in the rain or snow, the ones who go into hostile environments, who go down slopes, climb mountains, lower ourselves from helicopter winches.”
Yet, insists the president of Sis118, “we have never been taken into consideration whenever it came to granting health workers incentives. We have been ignored, but 118 demonstrates that no savings are made in service and the news events demonstrate that 118 operators die on duty. All this seems of no interest. So I strongly and urgently call the attention of the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, for a legislative reform that strengthens 118, which gives tranquility and safety and above all you value us forgotten lifesavers”.
“The accident in Urbino is not the first and it will not be the last. We are tired of being the forgotten lifesavers – repeats Balzanelli – And finally we also ask for a reinforcement that includes an increase in the number of vehicles. A number that must be proportionate to the objective requests forwarded by the population and which must take into account the variable of time. In fact, it is not enough to have the means. They must arrive immediately, when needed. The problems linked to roads, orography and the dramatic phenomenon that we have must also be considered seen during the Covid pandemic, but from which we have not freed ourselves, of the blockage of ambulances on the emergency room ramps. A blockade that 'seizes' a significant share of our fleets. It is what we call the 'barellopolis': yes they use our ambulances as temporary beds, because there is a lack of space and because there is a management disaster down the line.”
All this, highlights the president of Sis118, “must be taken into consideration and quickly corrected with a new overall reorganization, including of the emergency room. It is not possible to functionally and structurally amputate 118, with dozens of vehicles remaining on the ramps and with the patients who wait for hours, depriving in the meantime those who need help quickly. This creates tension and very high risk conditions, which overlap with the objective risks of the road and traffic. Unfortunately, those who pay the price, in addition to the citizens, they are the operators”.
Today, concludes Balzanelli, “we mourn our dead colleagues and we join the families in their pain, but at the same time we strongly ask for a legislative reform that focuses on the concept of comprehensively strengthening the 118 system and restoring dignity. Those same operators who during the pandemic people defined as heroes, displaying banners and rainbows on balconies, today they must be protected. Because, if we continue to turn our heads the other way, the lifesavers will then go away and in the end we will have an 118 without sanitary workers.”
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