We received and are publishing the story of a patient's ordeal that lasted from Friday to Monday, through various emergency rooms in Cagliari. For any reports or complaints, please contact: redazioneweb@unionesarda.it or WhatsApp: +39 335 154 6482.
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I'd like to share this "little" ordeal I experienced over the past few days at the various emergency rooms in Cagliari. On Friday, July 24th, a close family member complained of severe abdominal pain and fever. I decided to go with him to the emergency room at Santissima Trinità around 7:00 PM. After waiting for about two hours, unable to speak to anyone, a doctor informed everyone present that the emergency room would be closed due to a power outage, urging everyone to go elsewhere. Amidst general dismay, we all left.
So, around 9:00 PM, we went to the Arnas Brotzu Emergency Room. After about two hours of waiting, the person I was with managed to triage the patient, shared the symptoms, and the doctor in charge of the initial examination said, "So, you came to the emergency room for a stomach ache. What are you afraid of?" Almost as if to downplay the situation. I wonder, is a situation like this even to downplay it? What if it were peritonitis or something similar? After the initial treatment, we returned to the operating room and waited in vain for many hours with severe pain and a fever of 38°C.
Exasperated, we decide to leave, and by 6 a.m., after a quick trip home, we 're at the emergency room at the Monserrato Polyclinic. Perhaps in a moment of calm, we manage to get triage done immediately, with blood tests and (finally) an intravenous painkiller. After that, an endless wait begins, lasting until the evening. We ask if we can get another painkiller, which is administered around 6 p.m., but not without managing to get further information. We check the blood tests ourselves, using the patient's medical record. We find some inflammatory markers that are severely out of range, including CRP and cholinesterase. Around 10 p.m., after further insistence, we're told they don't have a urologist or gastroenterologist available, so there's not much else they can do. This all happens after about 20 hours of waiting.
Exhausted, we decide to leave and are advised to go to Brotzu if the symptoms recur. The severe seizures return after a few hours, along with blood in the urine. We arrive at Brotzu in the early afternoon on Sunday, and triage is performed almost immediately. I politely ask to come in, as the person I'm accompanying is barely able to speak. I'm rudely told, "You can't even speak? Fine, if you really want to, come in too!"
I calmly explain what happened at the hospital and the hours we'd waited in vain due to the lack of doctors, and they reply: "This is public healthcare, you have to wait here too. What do you think of coming in right away?" I calmly reply that we were willing to wait, as long as some necessary tests could be performed ! We return to the operating room to wait, after having been administered a sublingual painkiller. In the waiting room, the situation is dire: an elderly cancer patient has been waiting since nine in the morning, suffering from severe abdominal pain and vomiting, and her exasperated family members on the verge of a nervous breakdown, all without assistance, without a wheelchair or stretcher for a patient in such conditions. I decide to go to the bar, crossing the hospital's internal corridors, past leaking air conditioning units, buckets to collect water, torn-up floors, doors locked with rudimentary chains, and floor fans with makeshift extension cords. My relative has been receiving care since 10pm, with repeated blood tests, an ultrasound and a CT scan.
He was discharged at 4:00 a.m. on Monday, with a general diagnosis of diverticulitis, antibiotics, and anti-reflux medications, which referred him to his primary care physician. Today, we requested a copy of the tests performed and received only the CT scan, while the ultrasound scan was unrecorded. In the meantime, we booked an emergency ultrasound at a private facility for August 1st, which, of course, would require payment, as the National Health Service (NHS) would have required waiting until September and a trip to Muravera.
The new ultrasound finally gives us a clear result: kidney stone expelled and gravel present in the right kidney.
I conclude by wondering whether a citizen who pays hundreds of euros in taxes from his own income deserves all this to be able to receive treatment in extremely urgent situations. Your considerations.
(Signed letter)