Confindustria Association expresses strong concern about the dramatic situation that the sector is experiencing, following the unchecked increase in the prices of energy, gas and raw materialsaggravated by the recent conflict in Ukraine.
According to the director Matteo Nevi “both the public and private healthcare sector to which our companies provide essential and non-deferrable services, such as the rental and sanitation of linen, uniforms and kits for operating rooms, is at serious risk of being sealed. Our companies are no longer able to bear the increases in gas and energy bills and the costs of raw materials to continue to carry out the daily service.or that, I remember, it is indispensable and irreplaceable for the functioning of public and private health care, nursing homes, rsa and first aid throughout the national territory “.
“As an Association we will also write to the prefects to announce the possible service reductions aimed at the health sector. There are approximately 110,000 beds that could no longer be used in hospitals and emergency rooms, 400,000,000 operators who will have to work without the necessary protections and surgical interventions are also at risk, which in 2019 alone amounted to 4 million “, he continues .
“In the absence of a government intervention in this sector aimed at reducing energy and gas costs, unfortunately, there will be serious repercussions – continues the director of Assosistem – also on citizens and on the fight against the spread of Covid. The situation becomes decidedly dramatic if we consider the values of 2019 compared to which, in energy and gas measurements, increases of + 650% and, even, of + 1080% respectively for gas (10 times the price of 2019 ), with an impact of approximately + 30% on the overall service costs of an industrial laundrye”.
“We also point out that companies will soon have to deal with a rationing of resources and raw materials due to the increasingly difficult and lengthy procurement that is occurring in this period”, he explains again.
“The situation of our sector was also noted in its gravity by the Anac – he continues – which asked the Government for a structural revision of the prices of public contracts also for supplies and services, expressly citing wash-hire among the latter as one of the sectors in which the regular operations of many economic operators and the relative stability of public and private health structures are at risk. If the service of our companies were, therefore, to suffer a strong reduction, we would all pay the consequences, since it is the functioning of such a primary asset and of public utility, such as the guarantee of health and health care.“. “What we are asking the government for is immediate action if the public service linked to the hospital sector is to be saved. This is why we sent an urgent request for a meeting to the Ministry of Health and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers because time is not playing in our favor ”, he concludes.