In the last 3 years 1 million Italians living in the South and on the islands were forced to move from their region to undergo medical treatment and almost 70% chose Lazio and Lombardy. This is what emerges from the survey ‘Study on health migrants‘ made by Emg Different for CasAmicaa volunteer organization that has been welcoming health migrants and their families into facilities in Lazio and Lombardy since 1986. The study also shows that 41% of Italians from the South and the islands declare themselves to be generally dissatisfied with the regional health system and that a good 44% believe that the SSR has worsened over the years. The most critical aspects are: waiting lists for diagnostic tests and hospital visits in the public service (82%), hospital services in general (65%) and outpatient and specialist services (62%). The analysis was carried out on a representative sample of residents in Calabria, Puglia, Campania, Sicily and Sardinia, between 35 and 65 years old.
In Italy the phenomenon is constantly growing, we read in a note. In 2023 CasAmica recorded a 25% increase in requests for supportoffering a total of 43,000 nights of hospitality to patients and their families. To respond to this increased need, the organization is building a new facility on the outskirts of Milan that will be able to accommodate up to 80 people per day. The new house will be built in the municipality of Segrate – near important centers of excellence such as the National Cancer Institute, the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute and the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital – and will represent an important resource for the 25% of health migrants who, according to the recent study, reach the Lombardy capital every year to undergo often life-saving medical treatments.
“From the photograph taken by the ‘Study on health migrants’ – he states Stefano Gastaldigeneral manager of CasAmica – it is clear that in our country there is an inequality of access to care between those who live in the North and those who live in the South and on the islands. An injustice that we experience first-hand every day with the guests of our homes, often forced to travel hundreds of kilometers and long stays away from home several times a year with heavy emotional and economic consequences. We at CasAmica have been committed to helping them for forty years, not only by offering them a ‘home’, but also services and psychological support, thanks to the daily work of the operators and over 100 volunteers. It is precisely to be able to do more that the new CasAmica structure was created: the seventh in Italy and the fifth in Lombardy, the largest, designed to provide concrete answers to the needs of the beneficiaries and their families. A project that needs everyone’s support”.
The phenomenon of health migration from Southern Italy “has now assumed significant dimensions – he adds Fabrizio MasiaCEO of Emg Different – with citizens of the South forced to move to excellent hospital facilities in the Center-North or, in any case, to hospitals capable of administering treatments suitable for the various pathologies from which the population suffers. High costs for travel and accommodation, as well as a sense of loneliness and abandonment, affect southerners in a very serious way: the need to intervene has therefore been strengthened both to improve the quality of services in the South and, at the same time, to support health migrants with affordable accommodation and psychological support”.
The study shows that 14.3 million citizens, equal to 81% of the sample, needed medical care for themselves or their family members. Among these, 1 million turned to a different region to obtain better healthcare (51%) and more trained doctors (39%) or, even, due to the concrete impossibility of receiving adequate care in their region of origin (32%). The main destinations of those who received care in a region other than their own are Lazio (37%) and Lombardy (32%). All of this has a significant economic impact on the lives of patients and their families. 60% reported high costs for travel and accommodation and 58% would have needed controlled prices.
Health migrants also expressed the need for psychological support for themselves or their family (49%) and transportation to reach the hospital (43%), services that CasAmica is committed to strengthening also through the construction of the new facility. Those who turned to a treatment center outside their region went there on average at least 3 times (38%) and accompanied by a family member (75%), with an average stay of 8 days.
Among citizens who chose to seek treatment in their region of origin, however, it emerges that the decision was linked to high travel costs (26%), long travel times (19%), high housing costs (15%) and the impossibility of leaving family (14%) and work (12%), as well as knowledge of a specialist doctor (25%), the advice of the family doctor (22%) and the presence of a specialized center in the area (20%).
There CasAmica’s new facility for health migrants, Project 3000 – the association informs – will be over 3 thousand square meters in size, will consist of 4 floors and will be able to accommodate up to 80 people per day in 21 rooms and mini-apartments, some of which are reserved for particularly fragile patients who require separate hospitalization. Each floor has dedicated spaces for companions with common living room and kitchen areas. A large area will be dedicated to children and their needs with play areas and spaces to stimulate their creativity. The inauguration of the house is scheduled for 2026. To follow the project’s implementation phases: casamica.it/progetto3000/il-progetto/.
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