Not to make useless controversy, and not even to burden in vain a day, such as this one of the Assumption, which should be one of lightness and faith, of faith and lightness only, but only because despite the continuous reassurances, nothing to date, at the level central government, it seems to have been done to put a stop to the inexorable process of wear and tear that has been accompanying our Health Service for too long, bringing it every day that passes to systemic collapse.

The Nosocomio Nuorese represents the emblematic case, and lastly, the heartfelt appeal of Roberto Deriu, Regional Councilor of Sardinia, under the Democratic Party, promptly describes the summary on his Facebook page, offering the unfortunately realistic image of a garrison now almost "unable", due to structural deficiency, to offer any efficient service (despite the relentless commitment of the staff present, forced to work exhausting shifts) with a very serious risk to the health of potential users but also of the operators themselves on site.

I sincerely wonder what he is still waiting for, also because it would be profoundly unfair, not to mean illegitimate and unconstitutional, to expect that Sardinians can "put a good face on bad luck" and turn to the "Private Health Service" (how many obviously can ) as a new frontier of specialist medicine, with all that this entails not only on the economic level, but also and above all on the level of equal rights in access to care. The latter principle, which for too long, seems to have been degraded in the same way as waste paper to be "differentiated" with care.

Let us be clear on one concept: a free health service that can ensure appreciable and efficient services within the reach of all citizens is an achievement to be preserved, to be protected against any "internal" and "external" aggression that claims to bend it to the rigid speculative rules of a unscrupulous market as it aims to achieve maximum profit on the skin of the "little one". This is neither more nor less than a strategic priority, especially at the Sardinian perimeter level, where the decisional immobility of the political level of direct and immediate reference and, it would seem, the inadequacy on a practical level with respect to the most elementary mechanisms of "problem solving ”, Would seem to summarize the results of an equation devoid of the correspondence that should belong to him.

It would be honest to show at least a minimum of clarity: are there funds to be allocated to the development, strengthening and growth of the regional healthcare sector? If they exist, and are ready to use, why are they not destined for the purpose? And if not, because the Region fails to find them and / or in any case to actively take action with a participatory spirit to find alternative solutions that can temporarily put a stop to the degradation of a "vital" Service for the very existence of a Community that wants to define itself such? Why is the gap between the island's health system and the peninsular one so dystonic and inconsistent?

These are almost trivial questions, but, apparently, far from obvious. In the meantime, because, whatever the reason for this inaction (but there do not seem to be any reasons that hold), the basic data does not change: the right of every human being to receive a free health service in his own territory of reference, right from the moment of its disbursement, is sacrosanct and incontrovertible, and cannot in any way be waived not even for political “decision-making and evaluation discrimination”.

Therefore, because any decision on the "quantum" to be allocated for the provision of the Service cannot be reflected to the detriment of the user who continues to pay high fees beyond his potential on the "non-provision" of that Service. Furthermore, because, the very fact that the State, in its central articulation, has thought of delegating to the Regions also the powers in health matters, does not mean that that delegation must necessarily translate into ideological "autonomism" for a useful coin (so to speak, because now nobody seems to believe it) in the electoral propaganda, but inadequate on the contingent level for not having in any way found its raison d'etre on the implementation level. Finally, because in our Island, there seems to be a lack of a hospital program calibrated on the specific needs of the territory and dimensioned, if necessary, through the fair "compensation" between "public" and "private agreement" (the same wording of article 32 of the Constitution seems to allow, at present, the coherent realization of such a formula), where the role of the latter is in any case relegated to the residuality of immediate and prompt emergence according to a mutual relationship of necessary interpenetration.

Let's be clear: I am aware, and it could not be otherwise, that in Italy the management of the Health Service is complex and dystonic , and these two years of pandemic have exposed all the "flaws"; I am also aware, as I believe all of us, that the National Health Service seems to have become the inconsistent sum of the different regional systems where, in many cases, probably in the most prosperous territorial realities, the "Private System" seems to have become, by the implicit will of various political decision makers, the response to the process of progressive and planned weakening of the "Public" one, mortified over the years by huge "cuts" to its funding.

But no form of awareness can ever constitute supine acceptance of pre-imposed formulas, or calibrated on other realities, which reverberate to the detriment of the population. Sardinia, in short, is not the flourishing Lombardy, the master of excellence and the driving force of Italy . The discretion in the management of the Service, and the continuous rebound of responsibility between the different levels of government, cannot constitute the justification of the decision-making inaction. Translated in a nutshell: to which saint should Sardinians turn to in order to enjoy an essential service to survival itself? It has been understood or not that the emergency concerns not only infections and hospitalizations from Covid-19 but also, and above all, the need to offer immediate answers to the needs of those who, for any other pathology or malaise, have to resort to treatment or be subjected to a visit?

Let's finish it once and for all with the “selfies”, the “smiles” and the “likes” of the occasion. Politics must regain its dignity, and certainly, as any of us can well understand, the most effective electoral campaign is only one based on actions. Starting now. "There is no certainty of tomorrow" (quoted by Lorenzo dé Medici, Triumph of Bacchus)

Giuseppina Di Salvatore - lawyer, Nuoro

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