Pte and medical guard closed, there is an emergency in the Ionian area: users and tourists rejected

Presidia barred in S. Teresa and S. Alessio. Question to the Ars di Lo Giudice

Pte and medical guard closed, there is an emergency in the Ionian area: users and tourists rejected

by Andrea Rifatto | today | ACTUALITY

Ensure proximity medicine and equipping the territories with structures capable of giving an initial response to citizens’ requests are two objectives often proclaimed to the four winds of the health authorities and by politics, especially when there is fear of the suppression or downsizing of the principals. But it happens that then it is not even possible to guarantee the provision of the minimum services required by law and the consequences are always the users. As has been happening for a few days between Santa Teresa di Riva and Sant’Alessio Siculo, where two important structures have been barred for an apparently absurd reason, namely the lack of personnel. In the first case, the Pte santateresino (Territorial Emergency Presidium) is closed or opens in fits and starts because out of six doctors on duty (there should be seven) two are not available due to health problems and one works with reduced hours covering no more than ten monthly shifts, but the ASP has not sent substitutes in order to guarantee both the 118 service and the opening of the PTE from 8 to 20: therefore it is possible to guarantee only the ambulance, even if in reality for some shifts the doctor was not present on board. At the entrance to the PTE, a sign was posted warning of the closure with an invitation to contact the single emergency number (112) in case of need. The garrison remained open on Friday, yesterday it was closed from 8 to 14 until a doctor arrived available to guarantee its opening until 20. But it is not possible to continue living for the day relying on the sense of responsibility of the operators, who often cover shifts even outside their working hours.

The situation is even more absurd in Sant’Alessio, where in addition to the “traditional” medical guard (active from 20 to 8 every day and from 10 on Saturday to 8 on Monday) the tourist medical guard was always guaranteed during the summer months: this year, however, a a sign written in pen and posted on the entrance door of the Outpatient Clinic warns that the service for vacationers is not active and another notice explains that “the night medical guard is not allowed by law to prescribe specialist visits, laboratory tests, etc … that they are part of the tourist medical service (which is not active due to a lack of doctors) “. Series: you have to make do as you can. The shortage of doctors seems to be linked to the hijacking of personnel in the vaccination hubs and in the Usca and therefore it is not possible to cover the local services. “We went to the medical guard of Sant’Alessio with my son and we found it closed – says Arcangelo Favata, from Turin on holiday with his family in Santa Teresa – the absurd thing that angers me most is that there is no indication, no address or time: I am thinking of foreign tourists, knowing the area I know that eventually I can go to Taormina or Messina, but who comes for the first time can really die. Among other things, two days earlier my wife had gone to the same medical service with her other son but this time the garrison was open but according to the operator not accessible to tourists “. Two municipalities that in the summer reach 30-40 thousand inhabitants left in disarray. The situation shows no sign of resolving but on the contrary there are also other structures in the district that suffer from a shortage of staff.

The mayor of Santa Teresa intervened on the matter, Danilo Lo Giudice, who as a regional purifier presented an urgent question to the Musumeci government: “The situation is very serious – begins the president of the Mixed Group – just three doctors in Taormina, four in Francavilla di Sicilia, none in Santa Teresa , with the closure of many PTEs and 118 ambulances with only driver and rescuer on board, who are forbidden to diagnose and administer drugs ”. The problem of the lack of personnel in the emergency structures also affects Giardini Naxos, Letojanni and Scaletta Zanclea and for this reason Lo Giudice asks for interventions to strengthen the health emergency system and underlines the risks that this situation entails for the population: “It is an unprecedented health emergency that falls on the whole territory – highlights the deputy – in a period of strong tourist influx and with the persistence of the Covid emergency, a serious risk is being created both for patients and for the few doctors on duty, that at times they are even threatened by not being able to provide help like PTE ”. The question then asks the councilor for health Ruggero Razza “what immediate solutions does he think he must adopt to put an end to this situation that puts the lives of many citizens at risk”. The citizen or tourist in need of care, finding PTE and medical guard closed, often has no alternative but to dial 112 to request the intervention of the ambulance, perhaps blocking the vehicle for trivial interventions that can be resolved in the territorial centers. .