The Tuesday to forget is made up of thirteen stretchers that at the Monserrato Polyclinic are lined up in the triage room, where a nurse decides the severity of the patient. The Tuesday to forget is worth an "ignored patient" at the Santissima Trinità, those in line are indignant, a homeless man taken to hospital by Caritas in the morning and at seven in the evening still on the chair, in the waiting room . Alone. «This is not dignity. This is not the healthcare of a civilized country."
In Cagliari, hospital care has been through hell , once again, since the Brotzu was shut down by a blackout on Saturday evening. Hospital closed to new patients. Operating rooms also stopped. That was until last night at 9pm, when they announced the "reopening" from via Peretti. But "gradual" was the precision.
With the Brotzu at half-service, access to the two emergency rooms was also blocked on Saturday. One for adults, the other for children. All emergencies have taken the route of the Polyclinic and the Santissima Trinità . «We've been here since 9am – says a man outside the emergency room -. We arrive from Capoterra. My wife is inside. I know they took blood samples from her. But after eight hours I still don't see her." The line of ambulances stretches from the emergency entrance to the rest area on the side of the structure. «We called 118 at 11. They told us that no emergency vehicles were available in Cagliari. We had to wait an hour. The patient is my mother: she is 89 years old and has heart problems." On the phone, a man tells his wife about "bathrooms without water and very dirty", she reports while speaking outside the emergency room. The relatives are all near the entrance, when a gentleman makes his way. Behind him a patient who has his hands on his throat: "Let him pass, he can't breathe." The security guard intervenes and gives the order to "ring the bell".
At seven in the evening, at the Santissima Trinità there are those who have arrived right from the Polyclinic. «We are accompanying a friend with a compound fracture – explain two women sitting on a wall in the courtyard -. In Monserrato they told us to come here because they were full." Outside, ambulances still coming in and out. It peaked at lunchtime. And the cascading delays are also in the tired look of a gentleman waiting for his wife: "She came in at 2.30pm, I only know that they took her blood samples."
Today will be service order day . At Brotzu the health management will have to tell the doctors how to organize elective surgery, i.e. the operations that were scheduled but have been suspended since Saturday, given the electrical instability generated by the blackouts. It will then be a matter of understanding, for the same safety reasons, how many patients Brotzu will be able to support when resuming its activity. The leaders of via Peretti have agreed with the Region on a slow restart, without overloading patients , precisely to better manage the possible risk of a new blackout.