At San Raffaele 1300 days for an exam: the denunciation of Democratic Medicine
At the San Raffaele in Milan you have to wait 1,300 days, almost 4 years, to be able to perform a cholecystectomy (videolaparocholecystectomy or VLC): it seems impossible, beyond all imagination, but instead it is exactly like this, exactly as it appears in the tables published on the site of the health facility and by the same declaration of the management of that hospital. A decidedly unenviable record, which literally breaks through all other previous records in the field of waiting lists in Lombardy.
Agnoletto: “This is the latest case of impossible waiting lists that we have discovered, in chronological order”
“This is the latest case of impossible waiting lists that we have discovered, in chronological order, following the complaint made by Mrs. Aurelia during the last episode of 37e2”, said Vittorio Agnoletto, doctor and presenter of the historic broadcast on health by Radio Popolare, winner in 2020 of the special mention of the Ambrogino d’oro from the Municipality of Milan. “We have invited the commissioner Guido Bertolaso to intervene in the transmission – added Agnoletto – but no answer has reached us, total silence: we ask ourselves what are the urgent and concrete interventions that the
Region is planning to break down these absurd waiting lists, causing enormous inconvenience for the population, given that it was a goal placed at the center of President Fontana’s electoral campaign “!
The story of Aurelia and her biliary colic
Even the story of Mrs. Aurelia, who spoke live in the Friday 17 episode of “37e2”, is a dramatic example of how waiting lists for operations in private structures accredited with the public health service do not work: “In August 2020 I had the first episode of biliary colic – said Mrs. Aurelia – and I went to the San Raffaele Emergency Department, but due to the pandemic in October I was put on the waiting list, without however a precise date, for the operation of cholecystectomy. My stones, more than one cm, cannot be dissolved in any way. Since then, every 6 months I have undergone checks, but still no date is scheduled for the intervention. I continue to feel bad, continuous stitches, pains, nausea, vomiting, despite the change in diet. Until in January 2023 I said enough, I can’t take it anymore: I called San Raffaele and asked what stage the waiting list was at, and they told me there was still a long time to wait.
So I asked how long the wait was for a paid intervention: I was told orally that there weren’t any paid waiting times and that the cost was 7,500 euros! At that point I stopped because it is not fair that an honest citizen who pays taxes should not have the right to a public health service that works”!
Agnoletto: “San Raffaele replied confirming the truthfulness of what Mrs. Aurelia reported to us”
“The story of Aurelia – said Vittorio Agnoletto – is the story of the hardships and sufferings of too many people, who are unable to be treated with the public health service, because priority is given to interventions that guarantee greater earnings to the private sector. We receive reports from citizens and ask the heads of health facilities to account for their choices: this is what happened in this case with the San Raffaele, who replied confirming the truthfulness of what Mrs. Aurelia reported to us, with respect to waiting times for intervention with the national health service. An absurd and unacceptable situation on which we ask for precise and timely answers from the Welfare assessor of the Lombardy Region!”
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