There is not in the 168-page document along which the Conte government’s vision related to the use of funds from the Recovery Fund flows. In the #nextgenerationitalia National Recovery and Resilience Plan, approved by the CDM on 12 January, there is no trace of the hypothesis of the creation of the “Nuovo Veneziale”, a modern hospital to be built in the Monteroduni area whose feasibility study had been sent from the Molise Region to the attention of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
A new hospital but an old idea that refers to the then candidate for president Michele Iorio who hypothesized its construction several years ago who had neither registered enthusiasm nor consensus in the Isernino area. The same regional secretary of the Democratic Party, Vittorino Facciolla, in an interview with Primo Piano Molise, had called it “madness”. Moreover, as he remarked, there are unused hospital structures in the same territorial area of reference. Why a new hospital then?
The action to relaunch the country outlined in the Plan is guided by interventions connected to three strategic axes: digitization and innovation, ecological transition and social inclusion. And, in terms of Health, the theme is precisely that of the modernization of a system severely tested by the pandemic, which has shown evidence and needs that seem to be able to do without a new hospital, albeit modern and equipped, but which, on the other hand, they require technological infrastructures capable of bringing healthcare to where it is needed. Issue often addressed by regional policy, especially by the opposition and in recent times. «The pandemic has shown the indispensable social and economic value of local health – reads the long introduction to the presentation of the Plan signed by Prime Minister Conte -, the improvement of which involves investment in proximity services and in technological and digital equipment. A stronger integration between health, social and environmental policies – he points out – will contribute, together with investments in research, to a new health chain, centered on the well-being of citizens and the system’s ability to respond to crises ».
Those 116 million euros put on the plate, a sum that would have been used to create the Nuovo Veneziale to meet the needs of modernization, reorganization and adaptation of the Molise hospital network, will thus be ‘saved’. An investment project, as specified in the form sent to Rome, with which it was intended to promote the concentration of the quality hospital offer in new, functional and modern structures, easily accessible and equipped with the specialists required by regional planning, technologies and services necessary for the full satisfaction of the right to health in conditions of safety and efficiency. Because the ‘old Veneziale’, designed and built from 1970 to 1985, was defined as “obsolete and inadequate not only from the point of view of the state of the masonry and construction characteristics but also and above all as regards the narrowness and functional distribution of the spaces and the technological and plant equipment. This structure – reads the sheet – does not guarantee the possibility of adjustments related to the need to comply with the protection and safety standards. In this context, the construction of a new hospital in Isernia is a priority of the Molise health system ». As is known, the Municipality of Isernia has been included in the seismic municipalities since 1937 and all the buildings of the old Veneziale were built in compliance with the seismic legislation in force at the time of its construction. “All this implies, quantitatively, a deficit in the adaptation of the structures with respect to the 2008 legislation – reads the feasibility study -: as regards the first block, concrete is over 35 years old and smooth steel, while for the second core, the concrete is younger and of better quality and the reinforcements are in steel with improved adhesion. This highlights a substantial difference between the two blocks and, regardless of the legislation, a greater vulnerability of the first block is due to the mechanical properties of the materials (steel and concrete), lower than those of the second block. From a study conducted by the CNR – we read again – there is a high vulnerability as regards the first block and medium-high for the Dea core ». Not exactly reassuring information, as is evident. Despite these risks, put in black and white, the old Veneziale will continue to be the reference hospital in the area.
The Recovery Fund, on the subject of interventions in the health sector, concerns the strengthening of the hospital system but in particular the territorial assistance network which appears “weak and not homogeneous in the ability to give integrated responses (health and social health), not guaranteeing equity of access to care and constituting one of the main criticalities of the National Health Service. To support the development of territorial assistance and to face the future need for care, digital health plays a crucial and transversal role ». And this is the question: instead of a new hospital, the Plan preferred “digital solutions for multidisciplinary and multiprofessional care plans – capable of integrating care and assistance processes, as well as supporting proximity and communication to people -, a fundamental factor to support the process of strengthening and homogenizing local services in all areas of the country in the post-emergency phase “. In the Health mission, resources are provided for local assistance (close to the needs of citizens able to allow effective equity of access of the population to health and social health care), for the strengthening of the district services network, for the consolidation of the hospital one integrated with it, for telemedicine, innovation, research and the digitalization of healthcare. And these objectives, in order to be achieved, do not need a new hospital but perhaps a new hospital in the way of providing services.
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