"Is healthcare improving and is Sardinia coming of age? Alessandra Todde, come with us for a day, in the ambulance. Then we'll talk again." A provocation, but only to a certain extent, from an experienced first responder who knows perfectly well how the system (doesn't) work in the Cagliari area.

He calls the editorial office, no name (known to the writer) brought to the public's attention, but he is willing to reveal it if the president, also the health councilor, were to accept the invitation: "This way I can show you what we experience every day."

A first clue, which alone speaks volumes, is the video recorded at lunchtime at the Monserrato Polyclinic: "There are sixteen ambulances idle. At Brotzu there are six, at Santissima the same number. Why? Because there's no room in the hospitals, the patient intake times are endless and unpredictable," the paramedic explains, "and often we have to do the nurses' work, but outside, on the street or in the yards: we take care of those we transport because the emergency rooms can't handle the load. And the wards are saturated ." The result? "We hand off the ambulances between crews while waiting for those we transport to go through triage, which is only the first phase."

Entire days wasted like this, waiting. With patients in pain. "Which means: no ambulances in the area." And there's the risk that an emergency can't be responded to: "Even the Areus vehicles are struggling: the MICHE ambulances break down, as happened recently. And they need to be replaced with basic ambulances." To keep doctors on the road, who are a rare commodity in the 118 emergency service.

"The discontent is growing day by day," the 118 operator explains. "So far, we haven't stopped out of a sense of responsibility. But the protest," he announces, "could be imminent."

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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