The Italian emergency rooms, in constant suffering, confirm themselves as the great weak link of our National Health Service. This is confirmed by ainvestigation of the Nursing up nurses’ union on three particularly disadvantaged facilities in the country, all in the South – San Leonardo hospital in Castellammare (Na), Rossano hospital (Cs) and Messina Polyclinic – which certifies, in addition to the biblical expectations for patients, intolerable situations for nurses: shifts of even 16-17 hours to cover the absence of colleagues and compensate for that of social health workers, with a dramatic explosion of cases of demotion. Added to this are the assaults on staff. “Nursing Up, after a thorough investigation lasting several weeks, working in concert with our regional representatives, is able to tell you what the most critical situations are at this time”, reads a press release.
We start from the Campania, Emergency room of the San Leonardo hospital in Castellammare“already in critical condition before Covid, due to the closure of neighboring emergency rooms that never reopened, such as Scafati, Boscotrecase and Torre Annunziata. This has created for the facility, now at the top of the list for inconvenience and inefficiency, a situation similar to that of a time bomb, with a catchment area that, from that of the population of the coastal area, has expanded in recent years to include the Vesuvian area and the neighboring province of Salerno. Staffing reduced to a minimum, with a chasm of nurses in first place that worsens dramatically in the summer. Our contacts tell us of unmotivated and tired staff. And then there are the attacks, especially at night. The fixed public safety post exists, but it is dangerously empty, with only one officer who alternates with colleagues for only a few hours a day, from Monday to Friday”.
Also in Calabria, at the Emergency Room of Rossano“the staff is reduced to the bone. The critical situation, however, in addition to the grueling shifts, the biblical waiting times for patients, and of course the chronic shortage of nurses and social health workers, in addition to the increasingly frequent attacks, is also filled with further problems. An agreement was reached some time ago, within the framework of regional bargaining, to bring an already laughable monthly allowance, currently worth 40 euros, up to 72 euros gross. Up to now, however, incredibly, this amount has never been paid. Dozens and dozens, for months, have been the inevitable requests for transfer to other departments. There is a real flight of professionals from the emergency room”.
The Polyclinic of Messina It is one of the largest hospitals in the South, and serves a very large catchment area between Sicily and Calabria. “But we are faced with an antiquated structure, which has long been waiting for an essential restyling. The emergency room is an eternally open construction site, with work never completed: the perfect demonstration of the inconveniences that reign supreme. At least 60 nurses from the Messina hospital, we are told, are not currently in service for various reasons”.
“We are facing a very serious and chronic shortage of nurses and social health workers that is deeply undermining, according to our contacts, the regular care activity. At the top of the list, in order of severity of a crisis that is getting worse day by day, there is naturally the emergency room”, concludes Nursing up.
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