On the Sardinian health crisis and the shortage of doctors especially in central Sardinia, the regional councilor Mario Nieddu was clear: "There are no more doctors to hire," he said.

A phrase that did not go unnoticed by Giacomo Marini , a 35-year-old doctor from Monserrato, specializing in endocrinology and metabolic diseases, who worked for the affiliated medicine of the Nuoro District, and on October 31 his contract expires.

Like him, with a contract to abate waiting lists, other specialists who risk returning home . "That is a sentence totally far from reality - says Marini - to solve the problems of local medicine you have to talk to those who work there, that is doctors, nurses and oss".

Marini, diabetologist, has worked for the affiliated medicine of the District of Nuoro (Gavoi), Macomer and Siniscola (Orosei) for a total of 38 hours a week from November 2021, after an initial renewal he continued in the District of Nuoro (allo Zonchello, Gavoi and Bitti) and Macomer, always with 38 hours per week.

"My contract expires on October 31st - he continues - I have long contacted both the affiliated medicine and the district management to remind me of this deadline. The answer was that there are no funds to renew my contract. So from November 1st the 200 -250 patients I see every month and have stabilized with difficulty will remain without a reference specialist. The most fragile and with recent diagnoses could become decompensated and clog the various emergency rooms ".

The first signs of discomfort come from patients . In Bitti, for example, patients also lose their GP at the same time and nine hundred people find themselves without primary care. Marini recalls that patients are sometimes confused by the constant coming and going of doctors: "The bond of trust that is created with the patient is fundamental. Someone told me: 'You are the seventh diabetologist I see'".

Talk about contracts renewed at the last minute. It says: "We need something structured". Chronic diseases, if not treated in the area, clog the emergency room with costs that rise with hospitalizations: from 700 euros per night per patient. And on general practitioners: "They are missing because they are not trained. After graduation you need to take a three-year course in which you are underpaid, not even a thousand euros a month".

Fabio Ledda

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