People line up from before dawn, from 4:30 in the morning, outside Ascot clinics, just to secure an appointment. Or they're forced to pay someone to wait for them. Otherwise, if they don't have a relative or friend available to offer concrete assistance, like a ride to the nearest hospital, miles away, they're destined to forgo treatment, and in Sardinia this happens to more than one in ten elderly people.
"The situation is dramatic," emphasizes Maria Giuseppa Speziga, general secretary of Uil Pensionati, "one of the most critical at the national level."
The progressive and rapid aging of the population, the collapse of community medicine, and the region's structural difficulties are having a severe impact on people's lives, particularly the most vulnerable. "On the island, there are over 280 people over 65 for every 100 young people; in recent years, we've lost approximately 40% of our general practitioners, and regional calls for applications continue to reveal hundreds of vacant positions. Recently, there were 560 vacant positions. Active doctors often manage caseloads that are at the limit, with maximum patient numbers exceeding 1,400-1,500 patients each," he adds, "making adequate home or community care impossible, especially for chronically ill patients who are not self-sufficient. Given these data, it's clear how worrying the present and future are for the population."
Cristina Cossu