A new petition has been published on CHANGE.ORG for a couple of days. It concerns a historic voluntary association that deals with support for cancer patients, Attivecomeprima. It is among the first born in Italy, founded by There’s Burrone (patient herself) in 1973, at a time when the word cancer was not even dared to pronounce. Attivecomeprima has been operating in Milan (but not only, thanks to the web) for 49 years (the anniversary will be next February 2nd), offering free medical and psychological assistance services. He has “lived” forty of these years in a historic location in Via Livigno, a building of the former Bassi Hospital. Last June, however, the rental contract, stipulated with ATS-Città di Milano, expired and the association was asked to leave the premises by the end of February. The building – reports the association – will in fact be destined for internal use by the same company, which needs it for the ongoing territorial reorganization of the social and health services required by the PNRR and the health plan of the Lombardy Region. The petition on Change.org, which has exceeded 2,000 signatures, calls for the eviction to be blocked.
“Ada had founded the association within the National Cancer Institute of Milan and for ten years we have worked and assisted patients in the hospital”, he says Alberto Ricciuti, doctor and president of Attivecomeprima. But we had grown up, we needed a larger office, and since 1983 we have moved to this building, first with a free loan agreement and, since 1995 – the year in which the structure passed to the Lombardy Region – with a lease contract with the ATS, which is currently 28 thousand euros a year. It is a historic building, subject to the constraints of the Fine Arts, which in recent years we have arranged by anticipating expenses. We are very sorry to leave, but beyond this, the association urgently needs a new ‘home’ that is adequate to carry out all our activities ”. A few numbers: in 2021, despite the pandemic, Attivecomeprima carried out, face-to-face or online, 1,570 psychological aids, 586 medical consultations, 745 days of psychocorporeal activity. All free services for patients and their families. For years, moreover, it has also been involved in training for general practitioners and for the health personnel of the ATS.
“We have state-of-the-art hospitals that are cathedrals of medical and technological expertise, but when the patient returns home they often experience a sense of abandonment – continues Ricciuti – Because between the hospital and one’s home there is a sort of void to fill . In fact, there are extraordinary resources and skills in the area which must however be enhanced and reorganized in order to work in synergy with each other. And I am referring to the resources of general medicine and associations like ours that work every day to tackle health problems in their real and complex medical-social dimension. The decision not to renew the contract took us by surprise and, for other understandable reasons, deeply disappointed and bewildered us. Even more so in the times we are living in, when even from Europe there are requests for a rethinking and reorganization in the medical-social sense of the territorial health services of the Member States, a reality such as Attivecas prima should be recognized as a common good to be preserved, sustained. and enhance. Staying here would be a wonderful gift but if we have to, even if reluctantly, we will leave. Our first urgency, therefore, is to find a suitable location, with a rent possibly lower than what we have claimed so far or, hopefully, on a free loan, as required by the new code of the Third Sector. We absolutely agree with guaranteeing transparency in the assignment of locations – concludes Ricciuti – but participate in a tender like the one that was initially opened for this building, which provided for a rent of over 30 thousand euros a year and a surety. of six years’ rent, is not sustainable and takes away resources that should be used for the sick ”.