you invent the beds? – Free diary

From the miracle of San Gennaro to that of San Vincenzo (De Luca): in Campania intensive care beds appear and disappear according to the seasons. When the virus is far away, there are many spaces to show how beautiful the health system is. When someone needs to be treated, everything collapses like a castle, or rather a hospital, made of paper. In fact, early last spring the government and the regional council explained that they could count on sensational firepower to counter the emergency. According to data released by the Ministry of Health, there were 506 beds for very seriously ill patients, equipped with all the necessary machinery. Other less optimistic estimates spoke of 335.

Some time later the Councilor for Health had appeared in public with just 160, but he immediately corrected himself saying that in a few hours the sum would rise to 280. From triumph to triumph came the great civil protection plan, which has allocated funds to feed the Salerno sheriff’s flamethrower and create new spaces in the room. “Campania before Covid”, the Minister for Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia, explained the other day, “had 335 intensive care beds. The government, through Commissioner Arcuri, sent 231 ventilators for intensive care and 167 for subintensive. Today 433 places are activated, there must be 566 ».

Wonderful. We are more or less in line with the much maligned Lombardy, which declares about 1,300 machines for dying patients. And, in fact, today, following these data, in Campania with 67 seriously ill patients it occupies around 13% of the total of these spaces. In Lazio we are at 18%, in Val d’Aosta at 33%. All quiet under Vesuvius, in short. And at this point someone might ask a question: if this is really the situation, why are there already cases of patients coughing up in an ambulance instead of being welcomed in the wards? Simple, because there are actually 108 intensive care places.

Who says that? Vincenzo De Luca himself, both informally in his Facebook posts and officially in the Campania Region daily newsletter (where, however, they become 110, but in the face of this chaos, a waste of only 2 units becomes on the Engadine health system). And the beds occupied at the moment are 51. If we consider that obviously many of these machines are intended for patients suffering from other pathologies, in the end we come to understand why Neapolitan healthcare is already collapsing. It is not clear in all this who began to disseminate these figures. The press office of the Ministry of Health does not provide clarification. However, the question that arises spontaneously is another: but are we sure that the same has not happened in other areas of the country? Hopefully we don’t find out.

Certainly the two famous Covid hospitals in Caserta and Salerno would be convenient for De Luca. Many will already know that the governor of Campania, like that of Lombardy, had begun the construction of two structures dedicated exclusively to patients suffering from Coronavirus. However, unlike the one built at the Fiera di Milano, those designed in Naples were never opened. They have never welcomed a patient, they have never been tested and for now, without a test, they cannot be put into operation. And for its construction, plus insult, six million euros were spent. How was this possible? Simple: as is often the case with this type of thing, extra costs of around 2 million euros have arisen during the works. Meanwhile, however, the Coronavirus had slowed its operation, so the board felt safe and refused to pay.

A deadlock was created, which in fact has never been resolved. And now, of course, it is too late to intervene: the two hospitals are basically two large construction sites. A beautiful unfinished, following the Italian tradition. And it must be added that one of the clinics was built on private land, which will be returned to the owners in 4 years. Last note: already in April De Luca had appeared in Caserta announcing that the great work was practically finished. Now there will be many things to explain.