Guarantee treatment, drugs and diagnostic pathways to those who cannot afford to pay for medical treatment. This is the idea behind the suspended ticket, promoted in Frattamaggiore (province of Naples) by doctors Luigi Costanzo, Luigi and Franco Del Prete. The concept is that of the now famous Neapolitan suspended coffee: leave a paid coffee at the cashier for someone who will come later, whose name and surname we will never know.
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A small gesture of solidarity which, transposed to medical care, becomes the possibility of guaranteeing the right to health even for those who cannot afford the costs of medical examinations in affiliated institutions. To the microphones of iNews24.it, Dr. Luigi Costanzo explains the procedure: “We have decided, as doctors, not to perceive the cost of some paid professional services, such as the issue of disability certificates or for enrollment in the gym. We tell the person who uses this service: we don’t want anything. You, if you want and can, put what you see fit into this community box. “
“Being close to the most fragile people, especially in a pandemic period”
The goal is precisely to use this money as donation towards those who cannot afford treatment. Dr. Costanzo, together with his two colleagues from the associated medical office, also keeps a quarterly report that reports, in detail, income and expenses: “We have reached approximately 8 thousand 300 euros in revenue compared to approx 7 thousand Euros of donations. At the moment, there are 1140 Euros in the cashier. ” The suspended ticket project has been standing for two years now: but the pandemic has made it more relevant than ever: “Before, it was mainly non-EU friends and immigrants who used the service. Today, with the economic crisis induced by covid, there are many Italian families who have turned to us for help. “
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“Ours is an idea of community – concludes Costanzo – because we are talking about a community, precisely, of people who have squared around the most fragile. Let’s just think of the fact that today, not only those who use our professional services donate, but also people who donate a monthly amount without asking for anything in return, even if only one Euro. ” The initiative was also born to make up for the exhaustion of public funds for health. Practically every year, in Campania, the funds with which the Region covers the costs of the diagnostic tests in the affiliated institutes run out towards the middle of the year, just to coincide with the summer. From that moment on, whoever wants to carry out an examination – without waiting for the often biblical times of the hospitals – will have to pay out of his own pocket (excluding, of course, some exempt categories).