"When we called for our Luna, someone answered the phone, it seems it was a doctor, an anesthetist, but no one came to try to save her fragile life, no one came to bring relief and comfort in a situation that was too painful and critical." The speaker is Francesca Ziccheddu, president of Asgop: the Sardinian association of parents of pediatric oncohematology. This is the full text of the open letter: "No one arrived, not even later, not even late. And yet, it seems that this doctor had taken an oath, that of Hippocrates: "In whatever house I go, I will enter for the relief of the sick."

Ours is not just any house, it is a pediatric hospital where children's tumors are treated and that Sunday no one came to us.

Perhaps this doctor was responding to the (dis)organizational instructions of his managers and no longer to his conscience, or perhaps he was exhausted by the lack of instructions, by having to expose himself to making decisions independently and to taking on all the responsibilities that those in charge did not take on. But this absurd and painful affair is being dealt with by the prosecutor's office, which is investigating the dynamics of the facts and the responsibilities. Our association supports the family in this path of truth and justice.

Today we are finally and, again after a long battle, relocated to the pediatric department of the Brotzu company, but we still do not have organized and defined paths to manage critical emergency situations. We have an occupancy rate of 150% on 8 beds compared to 15 provided for by the Regional Resolution n.59/1 of 4.12.2018 (still in force) with consequently insufficient staff to manage the oncohematology departments and bone marrow transplant center that take care of the entire region. In short, the provisions of the managers are missing to define all the aspects that can make the assistance functional.

But if doctors answer to managers, to whom do managers answer? And is it possible that those same managers who were unable or unwilling to address and resolve problems can now suddenly do so? And why did someone defend these managers from being placed under special administration to the point of paralyzing a process to restart healthcare in Sardinia?

Yesterday, finally, a reorganization project was passed that includes the establishment of a children's hospital and a change of management direction and we are vigilantly waiting for the swamp to be cleared.

Once again we are trying to raise the issue of disparity of care in Italy. We all see, and experience first-hand every day, the abyss into which the national health service has fallen since it became a company run with a profit-making logic, dismantled for the prevalence of private interests and to favor the privatization of the service".

Francesca Ziccheddu

Asgop, Sardinian Association of Parents of Pediatric Oncohematology

(Online Union)

© Riproduzione riservata