The National Labor Inspectorate has suspended the proceedings on some doctors Bari Polyclinicfined for working beyond the permitted limit during the pandemic period.
Doctors and nurses fined for “too much overtime” during the Covid emergency, the case in the emergency room of the Bari polyclinic
INSIGHTS
Doctors fined, sanctions withdrawn
The inspection action, explains the inspectorate, was initiated by the territorial inspectorate following reports made by an autonomous trade union association to complain about the lack of rest and the exceeding of the maximum working hours of medical staff during 2021. « The Inspectorate will proceed, in the next few days, with further investigations to evaluate the cancellation of the sanctions imposed”, announced Minister Marina Calderone.
Calderone-Mattarella conversation
Regarding the matter, Minister Marina Calderone, “in the morning had a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, to whom she reported the activities in progress”, reports a note from the ministry in which it is recalled that the minister will meet on 24 October, the president of the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, Filippo Anelli, was at the ministry.
The story
Three head doctors at the Bari Polyclinic had been fined for working too much overtime during the Covid emergency and for not respecting the rules on rest periods for doctors and nurses. The sanctions came from the Labor Inspectorate and caused controversy and angry reactions from healthcare workers. «The step from heroes to the fine was really too short», the bitter comment of Filippo Anelli, president of the National Federation of Medical Associations, who had contacted the secretariat of the minister Elvira Calderone to «bring the case closely to the your attention.”
The head of the hospital’s emergency room, the second largest in the South, Vito Procacci, raised the fuss through a letter addressed directly to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Procacci was handed an administrative fine of 27 thousand euros, while the heads of a general surgery department and the liver transplant center will have to pay a total of 10 thousand euros, jointly and severally with the hospital itself. In the letter Procacci highlights that his facility during the Covid period saved “the lives of approximately 8600 patients, of which 1600 were mechanically ventilated”.