Councilor Donini: “We deny the alarmist rumors, our priority remains to safeguard and innovate our universal healthcare model, which is the reference in the country”
The councilor denies the rumors that suggest cuts to Modena’s healthcare companies. “But it is essential that the Government invests in healthcare and removes constraints on hiring. Expenses for personnel and investments are different budget items, it is wrong to contrast them”
March 7, 2024 – The health personnel in Emilia-Romagna have grown in recent yearsa Modena come in the whole territory. E the Region continues to hire and train new professionalsdespite the Government cuts produce inevitable consequences at a local level. Indeed, the commitment for 2024 is to exceed the turnover coverage compared to 2023.
This was underlined by the councilor for health policies, responding to some rumors relating to alleged cuts in sight for the healthcare company and the university hospital of Modena. Raffaele Donini.
“The medical and healthcare staff in recent years has grown by a few thousand units, including doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, technicians and administrators: any alarmism about cuts and layoffs is unjustified – explains Donini -. Instead of chasing baseless rumours, everyone should denounce, as we are doing in every institutional and political forum, the lack of adequate state resources: the Government has chosen to cut and if action is not taken immediately to reverse the trend, the consequences will fall on the territories, affecting those like ours who have invested the most in public health“.
It was precisely from Emilia-Romagna, a few months ago, that the request to Parliament began a legislative initiativethen also collected by other Regions of different political colours, to bring healthcare spending al 7,5% of GDP and remove constraints on hiring and spending on personnel.
“Despite the fact that the financing of the National Health Fund is apparently growing – adds Donini – in fact the Government is cutting, because real inflation is growing more than the resources for the Fund. Resources that are used above all for personnel spending, but also for investments: it makes no sense to contrast the two expenditure items because they are distinct and separated also due to legal constraints. And in any case more resources are needed both on personnel and on structures and technologies”.
There is therefore a need for the Region to deal with the insufficient resources that the Government transfers, as already clarified by the two Modena companies themselves. Healthcare personnel who need to be trained and stabilized. It is worth remembering that, despite a legal limit for temporary staff which must not exceed 20%, the level of casualization in Emilia-Romagna is less than 5%.
“No region has combated precarious employment like ours by stabilizing staff. There is a reason why we are the first region for the positive balance of healthcare mobility: citizens from all over Italy come for treatment here. We are talking about a national excellence that must not only be safeguarded, but further qualified and for this reason we ask anyone who shares the urgency to join in this battle to safeguard our services in the area”.