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Guido Bertolaso lives the paradoxical condition of the statesman who was right but who hopes not to be fully recognized: theCovid Hospital in Fair in Milan, which she conceived in March in 20 days thanks to private donations (idem for the Covid center of Civitanova Marche), it could become a medical aircraft carrier for the whole of Italy and house the sick in the regions with the greatest difficulty. Starting in the south, where beds are scarce and the new structures planned for the summer are little more than ghosts. When the Fiera hospital closed, the former head of Civil Protection, who had also fallen ill during the company coronavirus, was attacked to the point of mockery. And now?
Doctor Bertolaso, is the time for the rematch approaching?
“I really hope not, although many colleagues are calling me at this time to inform me of an already complicated condition from the point of view of health. Hospitals are under stress, many doctors get sick, we are going into a very serious situation.
Is the Hospital de la Feria, so devalued by the government media circuit, destined to play a fundamental role?
“I have the impression that if the president of the Lombardy Region had been Stefano Bonaccini from Emilia almost no one would have opened their mouths to question his role, in fact there would have been high praise. When between May and June the hospital closed before a downward contagion curve, like other Covid centers on the Peninsula, Repubblica came out with this title: “Bertolaso and megahospitals without patients, the man of doing has lost his magic touch.” Others had ironed that, having been infected by Sars-Cov2, “it occupied a bed for the Lombards.” The truth is that we have built a free hospital, without weighing on the pockets of citizens, and now that reality is within the reach of all Italians for the needs of the second wave: a national hub ready to receive patients with helicopters and ambulances. Like a fire extinguisher that is there in an emergency, a vital relief valve to save many lives not only in Lombardy.
And yet, there is a lack of health personnel to run the hospital.
“Staff shortages have been a chronic problem for years throughout Italy. If you visit the Ente Fiera Milano website, you can still hear my appeal to the Italian doctors launched on the second day of the hospital’s construction. I said: come here to Milan; I need you to equip the facilities. He was already thinking about preparing an organic plant in its own right and that, once the emergency subsided, it could spread to other places. In a country where there is certainly no inflation of doctors. You don’t need an engineering degree or a Nobel Prize to understand these things. In addition, there are two other issues to consider.
You are welcome.
“Number one. Italian hospitals should lighten their Covid wards as soon as possible and distribute the sick to better treat them. Often this does not happen for economic reasons: the drg (groups related to diagnosis: the payment system of hospitals for each treatment activity, ed): it recognizes 2,000 euros per day for each Covid-19 patient. A hospital with 100 Covid patients on the ward receives 200,000 euros per day from its Region, and therefore from the State. the different hospitals spontaneously deprive themselves of Covid patients to send them elsewhere? ”.
Number two?
“The entire health system runs the risk of not resisting the second wave evenly, also because there is an evident imbalance in the distribution of doctors caused by government decisions. In March, Civil Protection quickly hired doctors and nurses to be diverted to the red zones in the North; Each of these doctors earned € 300 per day, plus paid accommodation and meals, compared to a national average of € 100 per day. Result: a flight of health personnel that has impoverished the other Regions, putting in serious difficulty the structures of the center-south.
Is it a political accusation?
“Look, I am a servant of the state and I do not do politics. However, I must point out that the health system, to be optimistic, has an autonomy of two months. Italians have behaved quite well and can handle everything, even other closures, but if the hospitals return to the conditions of last March, with the few doctors and nurses available who are also called “heroes” and do not charge an extra euro compared to Before the pandemic, we have to be very concerned.
Whose main responsibility is it?
“Given that we know well in what difficulties a virus has precipitated us, about which we still know very little, and that caution and the precautionary principle should guide us, today the government continues to make the same mistake: it produces increasingly restrictive Dpcm that are a a sign of a surrender to the rampant epidemic, imposing progressive closures with very serious economic consequences for society.
Were there alternatives?
“The confinement was already done by the Romans and the Athenians, but even the Egyptians 5000 years ago. There are no proactive countermeasures here! Where is the solution if you lock me in the house but then force me to ten hours straight to take a swab? And why is there still a substantial misalignment between local health authorities and hospitals today? Why is the staff still insufficient? Let’s stick together and avoid sterile controversies, I agree, but we have known for some time that doctors in hospitals and local prisons had difficulties; that general practitioners, when they can answer the phone, send patients to hospital at the first symptoms. And not only is the filter of the territories lacking, more diagnostic and health teams are needed. It’s not just about the organic plant. “
We still have time, intensive care is almost empty.
“We are in the middle of October, we will talk about it again on December 15. We must do as in the Fair and in Civitanova, immediately create emergency medical and paramedical teams on the model of the fire station: when the personnel is exhausted, we will have to rest and have new substitutes ready ”.
Some virologists argue that tracking is almost impossible now, the new submerged pyramid seems out of control.
“Instead of chasing the virus, the epidemiological situation had to be immediately reviewed with the goal of making 60 million swabs! You did well, 60 million: one for every Italian. Don’t tell me it couldn’t be done, today they bring you the pads and reagents and at least 50 companies make them, not like in the spring when there was only one Chinese model.
Are we spending our money badly?
“The government has expanded layoffs and state bonuses without worrying, for example, about buying or requisitioning public transportation for students and stocking up on emergency doctors and nurses. This is the purpose of the Recovery Fund or Monthly money. And despite all the offensive messages I am receiving on social networks, I repeat that the Immuni application only makes sense and effectiveness if it becomes mandatory: either we use it well, or we throw it away ”.
After the experience with the Lombardy Region, do you expect other regional presidents to call you to collaborate?
“I expect nothing. I am a free man, as Berlusconi knows who adored me because he was one of the few men in his circle who did not. Now I am in the Marches to press olives and make oil. The Ospedale experience in Fiera reminded me of the media treatment I suffered after the earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009, when I was in charge of Civil Protection. Despite the punctuality of our intervention, recognized at first, we were soon the subject of all possible accusations, accompanied by the usual photos of the cars next to the rubble. But that was a successful operation for the entire Italian state, we went to explain it to Japan. Then came the 2016 earthquake in Marche, with another government: the rubble of Amatrice is still there but hardly anyone shows it on television. In Italy there is always a kind of condescension to the inefficiencies of some and an unbearable controversial reaction to the positive results of others.
In 2021 the new mayor of Rome must be elected. The last time Forza Italia proposed his name, but the center-right split and the candidacy faded. Can Bertolaso still serve for the aftermath?
“I would give my life for Rome, but there are no conditions.”
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