But as an Olympic village for the next Universiade: the Maria Adelaide must be used for what it always was before the closure, which took place in 2016, that is, as a hospital. The order of the Doctors of Turin and the Anaao Assomed trade union say so, convinced that the reopening and conversion to a territorial structure represent a great opportunity to equip an area lacking in services and with a high demand for health with a new public health center , to make a virtuous use of the European funds already prepared, to experiment with an innovative model of care, which could become an example at national level. An authoritative assist to the request of the residents of the Aurora district – carried out by the popular assembly “Let’s reopen the Maria Adelaide” – to reuse the entire structure as a community house and community hospital for territorial assistance.
The reasons for a choice
There are several reasons given: the area of North Turin is among those with a higher degree of social unease and inequality also in terms of health and life expectancy; most of the territorial services of the ASL City of Turin are concentrated in the districts of South Turin. Therefore there would be a real need for new structures; the Pnrr (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), which makes use of European funds already allocated, provides for a specific chapter of 7 billion euros for the creation of “Community Homes” on the territory and for the strengthening of “intermediate health care” “; the Maria Adelaide hospital is already a building intended for medical use; the spaces allow the creation of a community home and a community hospital, two innovative projects of territorial health that would make Turin and Piedmont a national model.
“Valuing what exists”
Hence the stance: “It seems incomprehensible to us the project to use the Maria Adelaide as an Olympic Village for the next Universiade, with subsequent transformation into a university residence, depriving the territory of an important public health facility, when instead there are other abandoned sites suitable for this purpose (for example the former Ballada Foundries and the Astanteria Martini) ».