The health problem “is a ‘dispute’ not only of workers in the health sector, understood in a general sense, from doctors to nurses, from the cleaning sector to canteens, but of the whole union and the whole world of work, both in terms of prevention and quality of one’s life. We need to tackle the health care employment problem in two directions: firstly, we need to overcome the precariousness levels that have arisen, even in this period of Covid, but also because we are understaffed; even more so if we think about building a health system in the area ”. This was stated by the general secretary of the national CGIL Maurizio Landini yesterday visiting Catania to participate in the event organized by the CGIL Sicily “Work, a project for Sicily”, during the assembly with the health workers held in the university premises of the Polyclinic; attended by the general secretary of the CGIL of Catania, Carmelo De Caudo, the general secretary of CGIL Sicily, Alfio Mannino, the general secretaries of Filcams CGIL Catania, Davide Foti and of the FP CGIL Catania, Concetta La Rosa.
Landini added about Pnrr in the Healthcare sector: “If the investments of the Plan are not linked to investments of a more general policy that sees an increase in overall spending on health in our country, and if an increase in resources is not foreseen for employment in the new structures that will be built, the risk is that the employment will not be public but precarious and even that a process of privatization of the health system in our country will be favored ”. For the Etna CGIL it is necessary to implement once and for all the medicine of the territory, which in Catania continues to be a great absentee. The territorial assistance centers (Pta) for the trade union are essential because they represent the concrete possibility of accessing treatment without going through the emergency room and without emptying the latter; and also to reassure the most fragile citizens. The general secretary of the CGIL of Catania, De Caudo, explained that “Catania is at the same time the seat of many hospital excellences that over the years have greatly eased the health migration to Northern Italy, and therefore a guarantee center for all users with respect to the hinterland. Sicilian and other southern provinces, but it is still a context of precarious work, poor work, services denied to the citizen ”.
The assembly was attended by doctors, radiology technicians, contract workers, especially in the catering and social health sectors, vigilantes, Aias operators; Carmelo Calvagna, secretary of the FP CGIL Medici, closed the speeches. “In Sicily, in Catania – continued De Caudo – there is an atavistic urgency of medical personnel but we cannot hide the fact that there has been a clear departure from the public sector by health personnel for some time, because the private sector offers better conditions , both economic and in terms of labor costs. Who can, run away ”. In Sicily, therefore, there are no specialists in emergency medicine and first aid, and the only School of Specialization in Catania trains only 4 specialists a year in the face of the current need to employ hundreds of professionals. In particular, the shortage of Anesthesia and Reanimation doctors that pertains to urgency and emergency in the Sicily Region, has far exceeded the 300 units identified last year, of which about 60 percent in the provinces of Catania, Messina, Caltanissetta. , Agrigento and Enna.