On the waiting list for a non-urgent surgical operation, she is called after 11 years by the hospital to arrange the surgery. When she received the call from the Sant’Anna hospital in Como, the woman, very angry, called the local newspaper and reported the affair. And, now, the story told by “La Provincia di Como” draws the attention of the Lombard health authorities because it would be in total contradiction with the mandatory order to reduce waiting lists given by Letizia Moratti, Councilor for Welfare and Vice President of the Lombardy Region. A paradoxical case. Also because, for the type of intervention required – a ‘simple’ surgical removal at the level of the colon – according to the regional tables, the expectations should not exceed 12 months. Certainly not 11 years old.
Healthcare in Lombardy, to beat the waiting lists, clinics also open in the evening and on holidays
by Andrea Montanari
The verifications by the Lombardy Region on the case of the Como patient waiting since 2011
Upon requests for explanations from the Regional Welfare Directorate, the Asst Sant’Anna di Como reports that the story of the patient recalled after a very long wait does not match the directives given to the hospital’s intervention booking offices. The reason: the services not performed are automatically canceled after five years from the request. Is it possible that someone was even called 11 years later? The verifications of the Region are however in progress because if it were officially verified, the accident that happened to the lady of Como would also trigger the system of penalties provided for by the resolutions with which Moratti intended to oblige the Lombard Asst to report the waiting times for the health care services at pre-Covid levels.
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by Alessandra Corica
11 years later they called the Como hospital for an operation: “But we respect the waiting lists”
The “Province of Como” has in any case received the outburst of the town that – according to his story – still needed a routine intervention back in 2011, which normally with the average waiting lists in Lombardy is performed in 10-15 months maximum. “We asked for the name of the patient to check if it was not an IT problem, since these times have never occurred in similar cases – explains the press office of Asst Lariana – But this name to make the checks it has not been given to us. The whole story has to be verified also because Sant’Anna respects the tables set by the Region for maximum waiting times, both for oncological interventions and for all the rest of the services “.