Some certainties: the work must be done "because 9 million of the PNRR cannot be lost" and because, otherwise, "in the future we will have to draw on regional funds to meet the future needs of the assisted community". And a reassurance: "Patients must not suffer" because of the intervention.

The top management of Arnas Brotzu take stock of the project to renovate the operating rooms of the Businco hospital after the meeting with the Health Councilor, Armando Bartolazzi, and the patients' associations, concerned about the fate of cancer patients in view of the opening of the construction site that will dismantle the current operating rooms: two, which will become four.

The green light from the Municipality for the construction project arrived in October: the renovation of two existing operating rooms and the construction of two new ones are planned: the allocation is 9 million euros from the Pnrr funds, with "the ambition of offering a safe, efficient and effective service in relation to new health needs and, at the same time, capable of satisfying the future needs of the assisted community".

The implementation, Arnas informs, «is technically complex and articulated to manage in daily practice, considering the fact that the hospital will continue to guarantee healthcare without interruption. But «it is equally undoubted that since it involves Pnrr funds, the project must be implemented, as its achievement cannot be jeopardized due to the inertia of the implementing body. The consequence would be the administration through the appointment of one or more commissioners ad acta».

In Piazzale Ricchi they ask a question, rhetorical in intention: "Can the Sardinian community, which pays daily for the critical issues of a public health system in great difficulty, perhaps afford to give up such significant funding, considering the fact that the operating rooms of Businco urgently need major structural intervention?". Hence the answer: "The management of Arnas believes that the proposal to give up the funds, as has been aired by many, represents an incalculable damage for Sardinia, with unpredictable consequences and considers the fears and concerns of those who obstinately, and incomprehensibly, continue to oppose the project to be unfounded".

The start of the works, initially scheduled for November 15, 2024, but postponed to early January 2025, will require a significant organizational effort. And Arnas proposes its plan: «Currently the oncology hospital has three operating rooms , authorized for the activity (temporarily accredited in a transitional regime like all the operating rooms and departments of Sardinian hospitals); block F which houses two of them, in addition to the offices of the Management of the Presidio, will be completely renovated to allow the creation of four operating rooms, all equipped and with adequate support spaces, to guarantee maximum safety and efficiency for surgical activities. The offices will instead be housed in block G», reads a note.

The use of the remaining operating room currently used exclusively for pain therapy, "will be shared with breast surgery and the Anesthesia and resuscitation structure for the positioning of venous access for oncological therapies. This will allow the current number of scheduled interventions not to be changed".

Oncological Gynecology and Thoracic Surgery, «whose operations were guaranteed by the activity of the two rooms that will be renovated, will find full acceptance in the San Michele facility». What for everyone is the Brotzu. «Also in this case the program foresees the maintenance of the number of operations. In particular, Oncological Gynecology will be able to use the two current locations for the hospitalization of patients. Thoracic Surgery will find a location for the hospitalization of patients in the north wing of the seventh floor of San Michele, and the same number of surgical operations scheduled in the operating rooms of the same facility will be guaranteed. In addition, an area for thoracic endoscopy activity will be dedicated exclusively to an area, equipped with new generation instruments recently acquired by the Company, located in an area on the fifth floor».

This is the path traced. And no other solutions are taken into consideration because " to date any other theoretically possible technical-design solution would not be in fact practicable, as the times required by current legislation, namely the public procurement code, could not be reconciled with the terms, methods and conditions of spending of the PNRR resources".

«Unfortunately», underlines the general director Agnese Foddis, «around the main body of the Businco hospital there is not the space necessary to install the modular prefabricated operating rooms, as proposed by the negotiating delegation of the Area sanità union: this solution would have significant economic costs and the works would require too long a time».

The renovation project "starting in 2022 (the year it started, thanks to the allocation of Pnrr funds) to date, has undergone an evolution that has certainly benefited patients, considering that, while waiting for the building permit that arrived in October 2024, new solutions were studied to avoid transferring patients from Businco to San Michele with the ambulance service, which was the initial solution. In fact, the current solution was reached, that is, the availability of suitable spaces at San Michele where medical and healthcare personnel and their activities could be transferred. The 9 million euro funds, already received for the works, do not allow for alternatives: either the patients travel or the activities of Thoracic Surgery must move to San Michele".

Enrico Fresu

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