03 JUNE – Dear Director,
it will become famous as the Policlinico, the only one in Italy, without first aid. A very sad record, given that soon, the other city polyclinic, that of Vanvitelli, will enter the emergency network within a month. We are talking about the Policlinico Federiciano, one of the oldest state universities in Italy, with a long, consolidated and authoritative history in the scientific medical field.
Who is holding back? – For years, the Federico II Polyclinic has been the target of harsh and unjust criticism, including some parliamentary questions, because it was never equipped with an urgent emergency service. As if to reject the idea were the leaders of the university itself, committed, according to this fable, to preserve non-existent position income and privileges. Now that Professor Maria Triassi is pushing for this to happen as soon as possible from the top of the University, especially the President of the School of Medicine and Surgery, the project suddenly runs aground. So who is holding back? Who bothers a university hospital with an efficient and effective first aid service?
As President of the over 22,000 nurses in Naples, who can also say a few words in terms of quality of care, training and health planning in Campania, I feel it is my duty to speak on the subject. There are countless valid reasons for urgent work to be done. I identify some of them who, as nurses, we consider right, especially having at heart the best health offer to the citizen.
Welfare offer – All health care activities, from the training of doctors and nurses, to treatment and assistance, have a single objective: the safeguarding of the psychophysical well-being of the citizen. Once this reference parameter has been set, it is easy to consider not only useful, but essential that we move towards the opening of the Emergency Department at the two University Polyclinics. In the winter months and without counting the emergency due to Covid-19 which has amplified every shortage, it happens that the city emergency rooms, especially that of the Cardarelli Hospital, are often so clogged that they have to resort to hospitalizations even on stretchers and technical beds hosted in the corridors. Third world conditions. A scenario that denounces the serious lack of emergency services in the urban area of Naples. In this context, doctors and nurses are subjected to unbearable workloads.
In Campania there are also 18 patients for each professional, in contrast to what is supported by the scientific evidence that recommends a maximum of six for each nurse. Beyond these numbers, the quality of care decreases. Up to intervening in terms of negative health outcomes for patients. The two Polyclinics can lend a great hand in adapting the quality of Campania healthcare to European standards, because they have all the professionalism and facilities to do so. Therefore, providing the Frederick Polyclinic with the urgent emergency service is today a question of civility, quality of care and attention to the citizens of Campania.
Training – The pandemic has taught us how all health professionals must be prepared to face the emergency. This represents the first objective for all those who manage training in Healthcare. In this dark game, the training of future doctors, future nurses and future health professionals is at stake.
The Board of the Federico II School of Medicine and Surgery approved the need to activate the emergency room at the Polyclinic to meet the training needs essential for the sustainability of degree courses in the health area, of doctors and nurses in particular, and for graduate schools. And we nurses will fully support this position. Because a high-profile education is decisive for the quality of care and health care. It is necessary to train future health professionals having in their backpack an important baggage of practice in the emergency departments.
Employment – Even before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, we reported, as the Order of Nursing Professions of Naples, at the top of the Campania Region, the unsustainability of a regional health system that has lost more than nine thousand nurses due to the ten-year block in turnover. With the opening of the emergency rooms in both polyclinics, a further boost could be given to the employment of doctors and nurses who today flood the rankings of precarious work or are forced to emigrate.
The Campania Region has already reserved the funds in the context of the Covid-19 emergency. The lesson of the pandemic has been clear, the shelters will make sense if they are able to respond to the emergency with an adequate staffing. It is not possible to conceive a university hospital without first aid for the years to come. In the past, the Federico II School of Medicine was criticized for not participating in the emergency with the nearby Cardarelli bursting.
Now it is clear to everyone that the will of the university students is instead that of full participation in the emergency network. It is now up to politics to take the necessary steps for its realization.
Teresa Rea
President of Opi Napoli
03 June 2021
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