Health mobility in Italy is an increasingly widespread phenomenon that involves one million patients every year for a turnover of over 4.3 billion euros
by Michela Finizio
Health mobility in Italy is an increasingly widespread phenomenon that involves one million patients every year for a turnover of over 4.3 billion euros
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“If you take care of people, you always win.” This is the motto of the non-profit organization “My brother”, an association of volunteers born in the year of Covid to honor the memory of Francesco Martusciello, a cancer patient who died last October, with the aim of supporting those who have to face the tortuous path of cancer . This phrase, which Francis always said, translated into a first concrete project to be alongside families in this delicate moment. A few weeks ago the first social housing was inaugurated in Arcore, “Casa Francesco”, a studio apartment of 40 square meters fully furnished and made available to those who, coming from afar, have identified the suitable place in the Vimercate Hospital to face the path, sometimes long, of treatment.
“This accommodation, just three bus stops from the Vimercate Hospital, was chosen to accommodate patients and their accompanying persons,” says Stefano Martini, president of the association. “Next week a guest will arrive from Rome, then in three weeks another will arrive from Catanzaro,” he says. Once the necessary anti-Covid swabs have been carried out, the patient who will be hosted in the Francesco House will undergo an operation and, after a few days of hospitalization, will settle in the studio in Arcore to undergo the necessary post-operative checks. “In the course of 2021 we will see what the demand for this type of service will be, but we are thinking, given the considerable healthcare mobility in Italy, to find, always near Vimercate, another two or three apartments to be made available to cancer patients” explains Martini. The hospital is responsible for organizing the allocation of accommodation, based on income criteria. Only the accompanying persons are required to pay a small reimbursement of expenses (25 euros per day), while the patient (in the event that he undergoes further therapies, after the first phase of hospitalization), remains totally at the expense of the voluntary organization “My brother “.
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Health mobility in Italy is an increasingly widespread phenomenon that involves one million patients every year for a turnover of over 4.3 billion euros, with Lombardy and Emilia Romagna among the most sought-after destinations in particular by patients in the south. .
The association supports the general oncological surgery department of the Vimercate hospital, led by the head physician Christian Cotsoglou, who operated on Francesco, who has years of experience in oncological surgery gained at the National Cancer Institute. To support this department, the non-profit organization has also launched a fundraiser for the purchase of a machine that facilitates the understanding for doctors of the risk of bleeding or thrombosis, which started just over fifteen days ago. The goal is to reach 18,500 euros, and as of 22 February there were already 60 donors and 16,182 euros raised, thanks above all to a foundation that has decided to embrace the project and pay the most substantial contribution, 14 thousand euros. Finally, among the objectives already achieved, there is the purchase of a pair of Galilean surgical glasses, an instrument, with great magnification capacity and useful in microsurgery operations, always donated to the Vimercate hospital.