LA BASE COSENZA press release
From right to left, the majority of the political class is now united in maintaining that moving the funds for the construction of the new Cosenza hospital to Arcavacata will resolve the health crisis in our territory. But reducing the issue of the right to health to the construction of a new infrastructure is a mistake. Let’s go by points.
The first point is that we don’t just need a larger hospital structure, but more healthcare personnel. Ambulances waiting outside the emergency room and patients on stretchers in the hallways are the result of too few doctors and staff, not a lack of beds. The 2023 Performance Report drawn up by the Cosenza Hospital tells us this:
most departments have not reached 100% bed occupancy. Not to mention that many areas of the Annunziata were completely renovated a few years ago.
Then there is the question of local hospitals, which if they really worked would relieve Cosenza of low-complexity hospitalizations. But many structures have been closed by those who are promoting the new hospital today. The population in our province is widespread, not concentrated in a single urban center.
Another element, used as a key reason for moving funds towards the northern area, is the opening of the Medicine department at Unical. It is a great opportunity, which is why it should be valorised by building a real university hospital there and at the same time strengthening the Annunziata. Polyclinic
and Hub Hospital are not the same thing and perform different and complementary functions.
Instead, we are witnessing a clear dynamic, divided into three central questions.
The first concerns the movement of the funds intended for the new Cosenza hospital towards the Polyclinic: a choice that arises from an agreement between Roberto Occhiuto, the Rector Leone and Sandro Principe.
An agreement that reveals the desire to invest in an area where there is still a lot of margin building speculationincluding rentals, construction and large-scale distribution. They divide the spoils on our shoulders.
The second issue is the weakness of a Cosenza political class incapable of proposing a real urban development project that also enhances the southern part of the city, starting from the Casali and the historic center. It is a ruling class that allows itself to be robbed of 349 million euros with which it could have strengthened the existing hospital, improving it with new staff and equipment. Administrators without vision and political weight, incapable of serving the interests of the city.
Finally, the speed with which city councils are convened and decisions are made, as demonstrated by the acceleration of the Municipality of Rende and the Region, shows the desire to close every discussion without a real comparison with the territory.
It’s not a question of parochialism, as they want us to believe. It’s not even a prejudicial “no”. It’s just that this project, changed several times and each time with different motivations, appears more like a speculation plan than a concrete response to a now unsustainable health crisis.
We need a development plan for the regional health service made with common sense for the good of the citizens.
Because we already know that, while years or decades will pass to build a new hospital that they won’t know how to fill, we will continue to wait months for an urgent visit, we will continue to emigrate for treatment and we will continue to die waiting for an ambulance.
The Cosenza Base
