"Dear Union,
we write from Burcei, not from a remote African village, but from a town just over 30 kilometers from Cagliari that seems to have gone back half a century in terms of services to citizens .
We are talking about essential services, such as a doctor , a rescue system, a clinic to be able to make specialist visits without having to face endless trips and stops outside the home, a police station.
For months we have been living in a situation that is paradoxical: all these services, necessary and indispensable for a community far from the first useful center, no longer exist .
For our 3 thousand inhabitants there have always been two doctors; but since one of the two retired, what is there should also take care of his colleague's patients, as well as his own, but this is humanly impossible as well as not permitted by law. Such a workload could not even guarantee its efficiency, first of all, nor its resistance. Therefore, those who are left without a doctor and would even need a prescription are forced to go to Cagliari or to other centers not less than 30 kilometers from here.
Can you imagine how an elder can cope with all this? Previously there was a sort of outpatient clinic where at least specialist visits for the most recurrent pathologies and blood samples could be done on site: everything was dismantled .
There is also Mercy , which for years has largely made up for the shortcomings of Ats, with many volunteers who have slowly had to leave - most of the time precisely to look after their families left by public assistance at the mercy of families - so that now there is perhaps an ambulance, but there is no staff . And calling a private ambulance from Quartu or Cagliari, for a visit or for an emergency, is a considerable drain since it charges both the route and the waiting times. How does a pensioner pay 200 euros for a service that he should have in his own country?
Even the carabinieri barracks have always existed, for any problem you could turn to an officer or marshal who, in addition to guarding the building, also had his own home there: that too closed . If today you call for a more or less urgent problem, the attendant says he can't move and you have to contact 112 which is always in Cagliari.
How is such a situation possible in 2022? Not even 50 years ago there were these discomforts, and perhaps - unfortunately - people aged even less and - perhaps - there were fewer diseases, often the result of progress . Now that life expectancy has increased, old age may not necessarily be peaceful and smooth: we get old and sometimes we age badly, especially when essential services such as care and assistance to the citizen in general are not guaranteed, and to the elderly in particular.
We do not know who can answer for this unprivileged and seriously damaging situation for the population. We hope that the administration - which certainly knows the problem and we do not doubt that it is working to solve it - will make the voice of most of the people in great difficulty heard.
Burcei has the right to have all the primary services it needs to protect citizens and their fundamental right to health .
A group of Burcerese tired of this situation ”.
