A healthcare system on the brink of collapse, professionals exhausted by endless shifts, inadequate salaries and collapsing structures . This is the dramatic picture of Sardinian healthcare that today brings Nursing Up, the nurses' union, to the streets to denounce a crisis that is now unsustainable.
In front of the headquarters of the Presidency of the Region, in Viale Trento, health workers demonstrate against a system that "accrifies workers and abandons citizens", with increasingly evident consequences: overcrowded emergency rooms, emergency departments and unacceptable waiting times for visits and tests.
Chronic staff shortages force nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals to work grueling shifts, often up to 17 hours at a time, in economic conditions that are pushing more and more professionals to leave Sardinia.
These are healthcare workers forced to work under extreme pressure and patients who see the quality of care deteriorate. Added to all this is the increase in attacks against healthcare workers, victims of a climate of general exasperation.
Nursing Up calls for immediate action: an extraordinary hiring plan to fill the staff shortage , a salary adjustment that recognizes the value of those working on the front lines, targeted investments to reduce waiting lists and concrete measures to ensure safety in the workplace.
"Public health is at a crossroads," says Diego Murracino, regional representative of the union, "either we intervene immediately, or we decree its definitive failure."