If healthcare, Covid and not Covid, slows down, it is not just because there are so many sick people and safety measures lengthen times and postpone visits. It is also because there is a lack of doctors. Decimated by infection. The alarm is raised by Walter Ricciardi, professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the Catholic University and consultant of the Ministry of Health, who speaks of a war with dead (217 only among doctors) and wounded without fear of being denied.
“At this moment – explains Ricciardi at the online event ‘Next generation health: the priorities of Italians for the health of the future, organized by the pharmaceutical company Janssen Italia – in our country we are unable to treat Covid patients and not even others affected by other pathologies because we are waging a war in which our army of health workers is gradually decimating ». In the last month, to give an idea, 27 thousand doctors and health workers have become infected and 53 thousand nurses were already missing. The news is fresh that an important Italian oncological facility had to suspend chemotherapy because the only nurse who was on duty became infected and, therefore, at this moment we have patients who have oncological diseases and cannot access chemotherapy as well as others patients cannot undergo the necessary surgery and still others cannot access cardiovascular therapies. In short – concludes Ricciardi – it is a situation that predetermines that perfect storm we have been talking about for some time. There is a huge problem of access and we have to make a move ». Numerous reports arrive from the oncology departments. And even cardiologists are sounding the alarm for their patients who fail to do prevention and controls as they should, so much so that there is a fear of a surge in heart attacks next year.
Hence the request for a new recruitment plan, not only to implement the vaccine plan and to respond to the request for sick people in hospitals but also to heal the sick healthcare system, which will pay the consequences of this pandemic for a long time. “The National Health Service is currently in trouble due to years of cuts in funding and staff. We need an extraordinary hiring program, an increase in the remuneration of doctors and nurses, but also a rapid digital transformation and the active involvement of citizens and patients ». It is hoped that the beginning of this process will begin precisely with the calls for hiring doctors for the vaccination plan. The announcement must necessarily arrive in the next few weeks in order not to compromise the organization.
Also on the children’s front there are dangerous cracks: postponed vaccinations, escape from the emergency room even in serious situations, diagnostic delay for diseases in which time is precious, interrupted therapies in fragile children and increase in inequalities. Today and tomorrow, pediatricians will discuss data at the digital congress of the Italian society of paediatrics.
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