Liguria, Orlando to the fight on the program front. The health issue and the proposal to the right: “We need a regional law on conflict of interest”

A relaunch at every step, from the square shared with Elly Schlein at the last meeting of the programmatic path on the territory, staged yesterday evening in the auditorium of via Garibaldi, in Genoa. «The priority» of the race of Andrea Orlandoas the progressive presidential candidate himself defines it, is «and cannot but be» the issue of public health. The issue that has been a thorn in the side of the center-right majority in the Totian era, which today divides the parties of the coalition led by the mayor candidate for governor Marco Bucci, and on which the left is banking everything “not so much because it interests people, but precisely because – as explained in a wide-field quota – it best tells the story of what Liguria has become”.

A disputed land that has pitted the two main candidates for the Region against each other precisely on healthcare, and not only healthcare. “You have no idea what you are talking about, where do you think you will find the money to support the public sector as you say you want to do?”, Bucci commented on the proposals on the subject of the center-left coalition. “Bucci says I don’t know, I don’t know: I have been hospitalized twice in Ligurian facilities because I live in La Spezia and I have seen what happens in hospitals. The problem is not only whether there is more public or private: – Orlando’s distant reply – the fundamental problem is the condition in which the public sector is”.

To give an idea of ​​the emergency of Ligurian health, moreover, it is not only the alarms coming from the electoral campaign of the broad field. From the 99 million euros of cost of escapes outside the region certified by the latest report Agesthe health agency of the Regions, anticipated by Republic last Monday, – numbers that make Liguria the Northern region with the worst negative balance – to the failure to comply with the quota for setting up intensive and sub-intensive care beds set by decree in the Covid era, and in fact still at a standstill.

To the attacks coming from the right, from Bucci himself but also from the outgoing councilor Angel Gratarola (“His criticisms demonstrate once again the poverty and superficiality of his program”), Orlando responded yesterday, in front of the Genoa room filled by the meeting on the program. “Our solution is to invest in public health, pay doctors and nurses adequately, reduce waiting lists. Let’s eliminate regional agencies, juggernauts, let’s stop turning to the private sector. We want a public health service, close to the needs of citizens and that allows everyone, as is their right, to access care”.

“A lot can be done in terms of supporting the transfer of healthcare personnel, for example: – this is the latest proposal from the candidate for president of the broad field – nursing competitions often go deserted because those who win a competition in Tigullio or Savona and have to find an apartment for 800 euros, eat up a significant portion of their salary, agreements could be made to have controlled rents for healthcare personnel, as I did in the past when we were talking about judicial assistants in the Ministry of Justice”. “If there is a strong public sector, it can also tolerate and support the presence of a private sector that plays its part. – this is the bottom line – but if the private sector replaces the public sector as they have tried to do over the years in Liguria, in the end it empties it”.

And again: “A clear issue is emerging: Councilor Gratarola does not rule out continuing to fund the private sector to reduce waiting lists. Bucci has not ruled it out either. I think those resources should be reinvested in the public sector to incentivize an efficiency of the structure that is able to respond.” “I have seen that, even when you are not forced to resort to private services, if the waiting lists are too long, you often have to go to other regions to get treatment. And going to other regions for a pensioner means spending 50, 60, 70 euros to travel.”

If the health issue remains the central one, however, the very construction of the program in the center-left quota is considered a political step even before an organizational one. “In this region, those who governed only spoke with friends, we travel the region to share ideas precisely to try to heal this democratic rift”, he explained yesterday in via Garibaldi David Patroneresponsible for the candidate’s team’s program, in front of militants and leaders. An audience from which Orlando also launched new proposals to the right.

From the topic of legality (“Doing things in the open is the first way to eradicate bad practices, anyone who promises jobs in exchange for votes should be reported, even if they support our side”) to the works, Gronda in the lead (“First of all we need to really understand who should pay for that work because, if the work were paid only on a narrow section of the tolls, it would mean that they would grow exponentially”). From internal areas to the management of conflicts of interest. “If they want, I am available from tomorrow to discuss a regional law on conflicts of interest and on the representation of interests”, he said, commenting on the move by the former president of the La Spezia Authority Mario Sommariva to the Spinelli Group (“a question of inappropriateness”, is Orlando’s definition). “I will not have any dialogue with private interests, except in a public and transparent way, when I carry out my functions – is the message – this principle must apply to everyone and I believe it is the way to also give a bit of credibility to politics”.