VENICE – There are those who leave and those who cannot wait to leave. And now the doctors don’t even wait for retirement age, they drop everything overnight. No more grueling shifts, no more starvation wages. And above all, enough continuous disputes with the maddened agencies specialized in “medical malpractice”.
THE FIGURES
Dozens leave all the hospitals in the Veneto region. A dark evil threatens the category. So much so that between 2019 and 2021 1,582 doctors and 2,613 nurses resigned. Some have been replenished with new hires, but there are still 1,117 vacancies to fill with new hires. Too bad that recent graduates have no intention of getting hired in the public. After all, it is enough to take a look at the survey conducted by Cimo, the hospital union, together with the Veneto Region, it can be seen that only 11.4% of Venetian hospital doctors, given the choice, would continue to work in a public hospital.
35.5% would like to flee abroad, 22.5% dream of retirement, 16.4% would prefer to work in a private facility and 14.2% are considering the possibility of becoming self-employed. Indeed, 24.2% are ready to hang up the white coat and choose another profession. In short, the category of white coats is prey to a dark evil, which seems to have struck old and young doctors.
THE COOP AND THE FUGITIVES
And so there are entire hospital wards forced to ensure only outpatient services, zero hospitalizations. And many, if not all, the emergency rooms of the Veneto, remain open only “thanks” to the doctors of the external cooperatives, who manage to earn 100 euros gross per hour compared to 40 for those who are hired on a permanent basis.
“We must do the impossible not to let those who are there escape” – sums up Giovanni Leoni, president of the Order of Doctors of the province of Venice and secretary of Cimo, the union of hospital doctors. Because the real problem is not even that of doctors who are running away from hospitals – but the same is true for general practitioners – the tragedy is that new graduates often run away before they even begin. So much so that there is a good 20 percent of those who are doing the three years of specialization-training to become family doctors, which they leave before reaching the end of the course.
This is why it is worthwhile to calmly analyze what is happening in Venetian healthcare: but it is no better elsewhere, of course, or in other regions. If anything worse. And start from a fact: today in Veneto there are 68, one for every 8 thousand inhabitants. Does this make sense?
DOLUS
Let’s start with Dolo: within two years he actually lost Cardiology and Obstetrics-Gynecology, Pediatrics and Gastroenterology, while the Orthopedics ward is dancing on the Titanic after leaving the primary. He means that these wards continue to do outpatient activities, but cannot hospitalize because they do not have sufficient staff to cover shifts. On the other hand, Dolo has just inaugurated a mega emergency room, worthy of New York which, however, is destined to work half-way since there are no doctors and is already standing only with external cooperatives.
MIRANO
And here is Mirano, Dolo’s eternal rival. The critical situations are in resuscitation, medicine and obviously in the emergency room. In all three cases they are dabbing with doctors from external cooperatives. And then Radiology and the Transfusion Center are suffering, where there are theoretically 6 doctors on the staff, but currently there are only 2. And then there is Dermatology, which has always been a very good department, but has been in difficulty since the head physician He’s gone.
SAN DONA’
Things are no better in San Donà, where Obstetrics-Gynecology, Pediatrics and, as usual, the emergency room where all the white codes are managed by the external cooperative are in great suffering. Here then there is the case of a doctor who resigns as an employee and returns to Reanimation as a doctor of the external cooperative. Because? Working less than half, he earns more than double. After all, the doctors of the external cooperatives have now become a legend when it comes to salaries.
PORTOGRUARO
In Portogruaro, as usual, the emergency room suffers the most, but they also complain of problems in radiology and, even more so, in paediatrics, where they still hope to be able to set up the pediatric medical guard.
CHIOGGIA
Of all the hospitals in the province of Venice, only Chioggia and Mestre keep Reanimations open without making external recourse to the cooperatives, while all the others cannot stand without the co-ops. In any case, Chioggia cannot cope with its own resources and makes up for it with retired doctors instead of cooperatives. The result does not change much and in any case the staff is insufficient. The Emergency Department is also in crisis, as is Surgery – which also uses a pensioner – Orthopedics as well and Pediatrics is a department that runs with only 3 doctors on duty.
TEACHER
In Mestre, apart from the emergency room and intensive care, no one is very well, but not very bad either. As happens in big boats, some row more, some less, but in the end everyone gets away with it. So there are a thousand foci of suffering, to the Angel, but none really worrying. Apart, precisely the emergency room, literally besieged by patients who for quite a while have exceeded 100,000 units a year and there are days like last July 25 in which there were 45 patients at 10 in the evening waiting from 8 am in the green area and only one doctor available. Even the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Department struggles to keep up with the requests for interventions and sends even the surgeries into distress.
VENEZIA
The same reasoning applies to Venice’s historic center. Also in this case, the emergency room and resuscitation are in crisis, while all the others are not bad. After all, the SS. Giovanni e Paolo is oversized for the population of Venice – in the middle there is always the usual story of tourists who, however, have little impact on the general performance – and therefore it is easy to have free beds – this never happens in Mestre.