UDINE. There is a lack of general practitioners and the emergency also involves medical guards. The central Friuli university healthcare company struggles to cover the monthly shifts of the service.
On the evening of Saturday 26, but it is not the first time this has happened and the problem is destined to repeat itself, four municipalities in the province of Udine, San Daniele, Codroipo, Pontebba and Mortegliano, remained “uncovered”. There were no professionals to ensure the shifts.
Citizens were invited to contact the Nue (single emergency number, 112) or the emergency room, with an inevitable and heavy overload of work for the health emergency workers on duty, which have already been severely tested by the pandemic. .
In this period the difficulties in guaranteeing the service to the residents also affected Lignano Sabbiadoro and Udine.
Problems even on Sunday. Citizens of the municipalities of Buia for the province of Udine, Pordenone and Roveredo (Spilimbergo, Maniago and Claut were all covered by the Meduno medical guard, which found itself managing a particularly large territory) for the province of Pordenone and Grado, in the province of Gorizia, they were unable to use the medical service.
Not a new problem, the difficulty of covering all the centers of the continuity of care service, further aggravated by the shortage of doctors. It is estimated that 10 per cent of professionals able to guarantee coverage of medical guards throughout the province of Udine are missing during the week.
The reason, confirm the leaders of the health care company, is precisely the shortage of doctors. “The medical guards are the same professionals – clarifies Denis Caporale, general director of the Friuli Centrale University Healthcare Company (AsuFc) – who at the moment are also on duty for the vaccination campaign or in the Usca (special assistance continuity units) and which, until recently, also dealt with contact tracing. At the moment, therefore, there is no availability of doctors ».
This year the situation is more complicated than in 2020 and the medical guard is often “uncovered”. “The problem concerns the entire health company – confirms Caporale -. We struggle to guarantee coverage of the service also for the municipalities of Lignano Sabbiadoro, Udine and the whole area of Upper Friuli.
Citizens who cannot count on the availability of the service must contact 112, which obviously on Saturday evening we alerted for the municipalities left without a medical guard.
It will be necessary to review the areas of territorial competence of the various professionals in service and divide the population on the basis of availability. The medical guards operate on the basis of territorial contexts ».
Caporale recalls that last May a reorganization had already been carried out to cover all the municipalities of the province.
«Now – he highlights – we are going to present a new business plan, which will be agreed with the trade unions, in the hope that all the unions will participate in this reorganization.
The availability of the company is not lacking, we hope that the unions do the same. For some territories, such as Udine for example, reaching all citizens will be easier.
The situation will be more complex in Alto Friuli. It will not be easy – concludes the general manager of AsuFc – but the problem must be solved. Then there is another element linked to the Covid emergency: with the lowering of infections, the need for doctors from the Usca will disappear, whose shifts are covered by doctors who also carry out the medical service.
In this way, indispensable resources will be freed up to guarantee services in all locations ». –