The new emergency room in Bari
The union: “We are shocked. Once again, the responsibility for healthcare inefficiencies falls on doctors. Meanwhile, in Maneuver, doctors are encouraged to work harder to reduce waiting lists. Should we expect avalanches of administrative sanctions in the coming months?”
Beyond the damage the mockery. The fine of 27,100 euros received by the director of the emergency room of the Bari Polyclinic for not respecting the maximum working hours in the midst of a pandemic emergency is shocking. With only 26 doctors available, compared to the 40 foreseen by the staffing plan, what should Dr. Vito Procacci have done? Close the emergency room and let most of those die who in those dramatic months found a chance of salvation only in hospitals damaged by years of neglect and defunding? And what should all those doctors expect now who, in order to guarantee services, due to the shortage of doctors and nurses are forced to make their staff work beyond the contractually established working hours? Are they the ones who must be held responsible for these violations, or should the finger be pointed at the lack of hiring caused by the persistence of an anachronistic cap on spending on healthcare personnel?
We also remember that just a few days ago the Government has launched Budget 2024 which provides, in order to reduce waiting lists, incentives to those doctors who decide to stay in hospital beyond their working hours. Will they also risk, in a few months, receiving a fine like the one received by Dr. Procacci and two of his other primary colleagues for working too much? Are the increase in tariffs and the tax exemption of additional services perhaps a contribution to paying similar administrative penalties?
“Once again the responsibility for the inefficiency of healthcare falls on doctors – comments Guido Quici, President of the CIMO-FESMED Federation, which includes the acronyms ANPO-ASCOTI, CIMO, CIMOP and FESMED -. And this fine has in itself the same violence as a punch thrown in the emergency room by an exasperated patient left for days on a stretcher due to the absence of an available bed or a complaint presented by the relatives of a deceased person due to intolerable waiting times. Only, this time, it is the State that places the blame for its mistakes on its “heroes”. And this is unacceptable.”
“If the institutions do not intervene to remedy this injustice which in itself has somethingabsurd, we will be forced to ask our members not to work, under any circumstances, beyond their working hours. And if in doing so entire departments are forced to close and waiting lists grow further, citizens will know who to hold responsible”, concludes Quici.
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