“We are open to any proposal to avoid the interruption of radiotherapy, but the redistribution of the budget assigned to Gemelli is not the best solution”. The chairman of the board of directors Stefano Petracca he does not hide his doubts about the proposal of the president and commissioner for health Donato Toma to avoid the blocking of oncological radiotherapy for Molise patients from next October 1st.
Toma: “Radiotherapy will not close, ready decree to redistribute budget”. The Gemini does not subscribe
“This solution had already been proposed, but it does not take into account the feasibility and the data: only in this way can a budget that is not sufficient can be redistributed”, says Petracca to Prime number “Surely we will not let the Molisans die but we have to understand who pays what”. Then he explains why the idea of the governor-commissioner is not a viable path: “For outpatient specialist services, from October until December 31, we have over 2000 bookings. So, we should postpone the appointments for over 2000 Molisans who will have to take advantage of the same visit to another structure. For patients it will be a hardship and there will be no savings for the regional health service since the services, even if not provided by Gemelli, will be borne by the regional budget because in any case provided by another structure “.
Among other things, “redirecting performance will mean guarantee them on the same day that the citizen booked a visit to the Gemelli. Visit which he will now have to make in another hospital and which must have the same quality. Therefore the Molise Region will not spend less money and at the same time in a few days will have to schedule visits already booked in hospitals, where we know there are problems with waiting lists. From a cost point of view, it is a dog that bites its own tail ”.
This affair also could have repercussions on personnel of the private facility, Petrarch does not hide it: “If services are removed from Gemelli (for example radiodiagnostics), we should close a department and put employees on layoffs “.
For the president of the board of Gemelli, who this morning had a long conversation with the mayor of Campobasso Roberto Gravina who wanted to have clarifications on this matter, “The only solution is to exceed the budget”.
“We – he adds – are an accredited structure and we do not want to impose anything on the regional government, on the contrary we want to launch a relaxing message. We are having a constant and continuous dialogue with the Region in order not to close radiotherapy, but we want clarity on the payment of services. We know we have raised a loud cry of alarm and we are sorry for having generated discouragement among Molise patients, but we have moved in advance precisely to try to find solutions that we are confident can be found. And it is important that this issue now has the proper attention and prominence. It was not a personal attack and unfortunately we know that we are in the electoral campaignbut our timing was only linked to the problem of budget exhaustion ”.
On the possibility of challenging the decree of the commissioner ad acta Donato Toma, Petrarch is cautious for now: “We cannot say it a priori, let’s see the content and then we will decide whether to challenge it or not. The decree must contain the technical details. But, I repeat, from my point of view it does not reduce costs for regional health care, on the contrary it only creates services for citizens ”.