BRINDISI – The Neurology department of the Perrino hospital in Brindisi is also one of the nodes of Brindisi health care. In fact, the Fp CGIL denounces a “serious shortage” of nursing staff which forces the operators on duty to make great efforts to protect the right to health of neurological patients. The Fp CGIL denounces this situation through a note signed by the provincial secretary, Chiara Cleopazzo, the health coordinator, Francesco Pollasto, and the Medical Area coordinator, Luca Ghezzani. According to the union, ASL Brindisi “seems deaf to the constant requests that come primarily from the director of the UOC and from the nursing coordinator”. “Requests which, remaining unanswered, will jeopardize the quality and safety of care in strategic services for the catchment area of the Neurology Unit of Perrino, much higher than that of the province of Brindisi”.
The Fp CGIL cites the example of outpatient and day service activities, where “the serious shortage of nursing staff slows down the response to the demand for health and, in order to maintain the standards of safety and quality of care in the various hospitalization regimes, forces the staff in service, strongly cohesive and supportive both in the workplace and towards the patients, to fill the gaps by taking on excess work and shifts which, inevitably, could increase the clinical risk and occupational risks (such as accidents at work, work-related stress diseases and illnesses). These are personnel who “almost always – specifies the union – have to deal with delicate and fragile patients with diagnosis and assistance to patients with: Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, ALS, myasthenia, epilepsy, ischemic/hemorrhagic stroke, thiasis, dementia, Alzheimer, headache, rare genetic diseases, mad cow disease, neuropathies, etc.).
The trade unionists point out “that the planning of the April shifts will not be complete due to the obvious lack of the staff turnover index: between illnesses, unreplaced pregnancies, contract terminations, etc., only the great spirit of self-sacrifice of the nursing staff who he is giving up holidays and rest, he is allowing Neurology to be able to guarantee all services to patients “.
“It is absolutely a priority to remind the reader – continues the union note – that the complexity of the neurological patient requires highly qualified assistance, which requires at least 4 nursing units per shift, guaranteeing the Essential Levels of Assistance (Lea)”. Furthermore, “it is necessary to assume responsibilities that guarantee the right to health of neurological patients in the province of Brindisi” and it is “essential to guarantee the right to decent work of nursing staff and the safety of hospital workers”.
The FP CGIL calls for “urgent and decisive action”. “It is essential that nursing staff are adequately supported and that measures are taken to ensure the safety and quality of healthcare provided to neurological patients in the province of Brindisi”. The union “expresses its utmost solidarity with the neurology of Brindisi and with all the patients who are treated with love and professionalism, and asks the extraordinary commissioner and all the management in the personnel area to promptly resolve the situation”.
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