New building of Santo Stefano, there is the laying of the first stone [notiziediprato.it]

On June 1, the first stone of what is considered the turning point of Prato healthcare will be laid. In fact, the construction site for the new Santo Stefano building will open, which will expand the total number of beds by over 100 units. A long-awaited moment, given the inconvenience that the population has to suffer due to the underdimensioning of the hospital, and which comes more than seven years after the decision to intervene launched by the then undersecretary Antonello Giacomelli with the mayor Biffoni, supported by the provision of 10 million Cipe funds from the Renzi government. Money that the ASL and the city risked losing and the construction site had not started by June.
Danger averted by a hair’s breadth but there were many unforeseen events, including technical (the need to build an expansion tank), economic (rising costs) and legal (the second classified’s appeal to the tender). Plus the Covid period slowed everything down. With the start of the bulldozers of the Nbi spa in Rome, we turn the page. As mentioned, we start from the employee car park which will have to be expanded by 130 units, bringing the total to 780. The parking area for users will also grow but the expansion will be overseen by the concessionaire, the Sat. The works will then move to the new building that will rise on the ground between the service building and the employee parking lot (rendering in the following photo).

The elevated connection with Santo Stefano is the last thing to be done and will require a change of viability for access to the emergency room which will take place from via Ciulli for the time necessary for the intervention. When the time comes, ample communication will be given, but there is no hurry. In fact, the works will last 875 days, or two years and about five months. A period that Asl and the Region could take to think about the staff to be employed. A reasoning that applies above all to the emergency room which, with the move to the new building of other departments, will expand. In recent years, however, the medical and nursing staff have fled from stress and risks by halving and the diaspora does not seem to have ended, so much so that to cover shifts, the directors of the unit can now use the service orders for those who work in Medicine. In the coming months we will understand if the emergency medicine reform just launched by the Region will have beneficial effects but there is a real risk that the building represents the right cure but found too late.
The economic framework of the intervention is over 25 million euros, of which 20 from the State, between ten Cipe and ten pursuant to article 20, and the rest from the ASL. The works alone will cost 18.4 million euros.

The tank, which is under construction between via Foscolo and the heliport, will be completed in the coming months. The rains of recent weeks have meant that work has been halted until the ground is dry.

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