Health crisis in the Nuorese area, thousands at the protest torchlight procession
A silent march for the right to treatment from the Zonchello hospital to the emergency room of the San Francesco hospital
For too long the Nuorese has suffered from a lack of doctors and health services. And so thousands of people - private citizens, administrators, trade unionists of the CGIL, CISL and UIL, patient associations, doctors and nurses - with the torch in their hands, gave life to a silent march for the right to health in Nuoro .
From the Zonchello hospital the procession passed in front of the Hospice, skirted the commercial technical institute and landed at the emergency room of the San Francesco hospital, where doctors and nurses looked out at the windows covered with a white cloth, greeting by the applause of the demonstrators.
The celestial T-shirts of the association "Vivere a Colori", symbol of the struggle in this territory and promoter of the event, opened the parade.
"After years of shouting demonstrations, we have promoted a silent procession to express our discomfort at the weakening of the local healthcare - said Marilena Pintore, leader of Vivere a Colori -. The hospital of Nuoro, once an excellent hospital, is struggling between closed wards or insufficient personnel. We are here not only to claim the right to treatment for citizens deported to other hospitals on the island but also to sympathize with doctors and health personnel who undergo grueling shifts . We also ask for a change of pace for the hospitals of Sorgono and Lanusei, so that all citizens of central Sardinia have the same rights ".
"I am here as a doctor and as a citizen of this area to claim the sacrosanct right to health - added Lucia Pitzoi, resuscitator of San Francesco - my department has reduced the staff, but it still manages to move forward, unfortunately it is not so in other operative units: the emergency room is in serious difficulty, but also Urology, Cardiology, Medicine and I could go on. This way we can't go on ".
"The problem must be solved at two levels: the regional and the national one - remarks Salvatore Lai, mayor of Gavoi - the medical faculties must be opened and the young doctors must be paid well. The Region and the State must intervene". "We need to find quick and definitive solutions - commented the deputy mayor of Nuoro Fabrizio Beccu - for years we have been going on with the local services weakened and with demonstrations every three months. Politics must do its part now immediately, otherwise only those who have money".
(Unioneonline / D)
