“No state funding has been lost for the new hospitals in Puglia, such as that of Andria or Melpignano”, declared the Health Councilor, Rocco Palese, decisively, “The issue is known and monitored by the Department and the health companies. The difficulties relating to the planning for the Andria hospital and some setbacks which require the involvement of Acquedotto and Ferrovie for the Melpignano hospital are known”.
“It was discussed extensively in the commission – underlined Palese – and the Region wants to continue with the program of building new hospitals, there is no need to resort to alarmist announcements. The funding is not in danger and the procedures will be re-proposed if necessary. However, I myself was among the signatories of the amendment which allowed the extension of funding for the Monopoli-Fasano hospital, which will soon be opened”.
“I hope – the Councilor specified – that in order not to waste time there will be a bipartisan majority again to extend these expiring program agreements, perhaps during the approval of the Milleproroghe, so as not to have to resort to re-proposing the agreements procedure. I note, however, that the discipline that regulates healthcare construction dates back to 2001: it would be time to change it, as all the Regions have been urging for some time, as the complexity of planning and construction of works such as modern hospitals, with execution that changes or with planning difficulties are poorly connected with the legislation and with the need to do quickly and well”.
“For this reason – concluded Palese – other public works such as those for the Pnrr they have more streamlined procedures and in this sense the national financing legislation should be modified, as was requested in the State-regions conference”.
With a joint note the regional group of Brothers of Italy (the group leader Francesco Ventola and the councillors Luigi Caroli, Giannicola De Leonardis, Antonio Gabellone, Renato Perrini And Michele Picaro) had denounced: “This 2024 is starting off well for the health of the people of Puglia! Money was lost for the new hospitals in Maglie-Melpignano and Andria and for the renovation of part of the Foggia Polyclinic, 318 million euros which will have to be the result of a new program agreement with the Government and therefore will certainly have the effect of extending the time… with father dead! And maybe not just him since we're talking about health!”
“The demonstration of how wrong the Region is lies precisely in the decision to have only the Health Councilor, Rocco Palese, show his face President Michele Emiliano, on the other hand, only shows his face when he is about to announce or inaugurate something or when he has to accuse the Meloni Government in order to have money, but then when he has it he doesn't even know how to spend it! Nor are we interested in explanations of a bureaucratic-administrative nature, it is the political body that must respond to the citizens, from whom we ask to vote to represent them, but above all to govern them”.
“Here's what happened: on 18 November 2020 the Puglia Region had signed, with the then Government, an Agreement for the construction of the aforementioned healthcare facilities for over 335 million euros, of which over 318 paid by the State. To access the financing, however, it is necessary to submit an admission request within 30 months of signing the agreement, i.e. to present the projects ready to become construction sites to the Ministries of Health and Finance. The Puglia Region was not able to do so and for this reason the two Ministries were forced to revoke the financing by decreebut we have had reassurances from the Undersecretary of Health, Marcello Gemmato, which will be reassigned as soon as the Puglia Region is ready. Now, as if it were a game of goose, we start again from the beginning: from a new agreement, in the hope that the projects will be ready as soon as possible”.
“So, Palese today puts his face on it and climbs the ladder, while Emiliano will be remembered for having closed hospitals and promising to replace them with new ones, which, however, are not being built for now and who knows if they ever will be! In the meantime, there are territories, BAT is one of these, which was waiting for the new hospital in Andria also because it has seen the hospitals of Minervino, Spinazzola, Canosa and Trani close in recent years”.
“And President Emiliano has nothing to say? But what else has to happen for there to be a real gesture of responsibility on his part? Not towards us, but towards the people of Puglia to whom he denies the right to health”.
The reaction, on another note, from the regional secretary of the PD Domenico De Santis is ready and parliamentarians Francesco Boccia, Marco Lacarra, Ubaldo Pagano And Claudio Stefanazzi: “Once again the advisory group of FdI takes whistles for flasks: what is defined as the revocation of a 318 million euro loan for the construction of the new hospitals in Maglie-Melpignano and Andria and for the renovation of part of the Polyclinic of Foggia, is only a due act already foreseen by the rules established in the 2002 and 2008 Agreements with the Ministry of Health. Contrary to what was declared by the Melonian councilors, the financial resources allocated for the Puglia Region have never been questioned, but remain available to the Puglia Region as they have already been allocated with budget laws”.
“It should be known to everyone – continues the note – that the agreement conceived in 2019 and signed in 2020 it is unfortunately obsolete in the part that concerns the economic framework, given that the Covid pandemic, the increase in raw materials and the increase in fuel prices strongly influence expenditure items and therefore needs to be updated with further financing which is already been discussed and approved”.
“Topics such as health, which affects the lives of citizens in such a profound way – they reiterated from the PD – they should be excluded from a political dialectic aimed only at creating alarmism, but become a common mobilization plan to obtain ever more resources. We would be happy if the FdI councilors were alongside us in the battles on healthcare, starting from the distribution of the FSC up to overcoming the odious methodology of distribution of the National Health Fund, based on historical expenditure, which penalizes the regions of the South and which no one of the current Government, of which the party of councilors is a relative majority, seems to want to change”.
“Unfortunately – they concluded – the 3.8 billion euros taken away from the Fund for infrastructure recovery in the South they are true and final. But no one from the center-right says anything about those.”
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Published on the topic: “The Neverland” and the railway stops at Perrino-BR and Dimiccoli-BT
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