No "updates, amendments, or revisions to company documents." And a ban is also placed on "the assignment of new duties, of any kind, to employees of regional health service companies and entities." With a policy document dated February 17, sent to all local health authority managers, the newly appointed Director General of the Department of Health, Thomas Schael, put a stop to the Sardinian healthcare system's ongoing reshuffle. Armando Bartolazzi followed the same pattern a year and a half ago, seeking to block any unwelcome moves by the general directors appointed by Christian Solinas, then in office.
Meanwhile, however, in March 2025, the healthcare reorganization law was passed. This law had established the commissioners declared illegitimate by the Constitutional Court. The law also required the government to adopt "new organizational guidelines." Apparently, almost a year later, these guidelines still haven't been adopted. Because, Schael writes, the directive imposes a "freeze on appointments" until the government led by Alessandra Todde takes action.
The director general's action is seen as an admission of noncompliance by the opposition. Schael "has put in writing what we have long been arguing: two years into this legislature, there are still no clear guidelines defining the operational framework of the regional health service," said Corrado Meloni, regional councilor for the Brothers of Italy party, criticizing "yet another healthcare quagmire caused by the management of the regional president, Alessandra Todde, who holds the health department ad interim."
For Meloni, "this vacuum has culpably plunged the island's healthcare system into an administrative and management quagmire." The DG's measure "is effectively a technical-political administration imposed in a desperate attempt to pull the Sardinian healthcare system out of the quicksand into which it has sunk due to the failed reform launched by the Todde-Bartolazzi duo."
This analysis comes as a segment of the government, excluding the Democratic Party and the Progressives and ultimately breaking with them, has decided to proceed with the appointments of the managers of the Cagliari and Olbia local health authorities (Antonio Irione was expected in Gallura last Monday; he has not yet taken up his duties). President Todde downplayed the situation, assuring that her majority "will work together" and that she feels "as stubbornly united as Elly Schlein." But yesterday's executive meeting was again deserted by the Democrats.
Another Melonian, Fausto Piga, chimes in: "The elastic band holding President Todde and the Democratic Party together is breaking," he comments. "While previously the political rifts were barely contained within the confines of the party and denied by platitudes, now the crisis in the wider arena is blatant: it's become a battlefield, with an all-out war between the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement that is tormenting Sardinia with delays, institutional chaos, and superficiality. This situation is no longer tolerable. It's better to get back to voting."