Cagliari, dozens of patients "stretched out": the emergency room is like a parking lot.

The emergency room at Santissima Trinità is in a state of collapse. The ward was closed for two days to allow for urgent, non-postponable maintenance work on the electrical system. Meanwhile, inside, reports emerged that a patient "has been hospitalized for three weeks because his relatives won't take him home." Despite the temporary ban on admissions—reactivated yesterday—this morning there were 69 patients requiring care.

This situation places daily pressure on all the facility's staff, who are faced with limited staffing levels and a constant influx of patients that is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

And not everyone should end up in hospital: there are many "social cases that you can't send away and who obviously take up a bed," is the story.

The medical centers are out of beds: they're all occupied. So care is being provided to the elderly and needy who remain on stretchers: there were 22 boarding cases this morning.

The testimonies are anonymous, but heartfelt: "We're working like crazy. There are colleagues who cry as soon as they set foot in the emergency room over what they find: we work terribly, with the risk of making mistakes."

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)