A chasm. Literally. In the Sardinian health system there is an unfilled staff of over 4 thousand positions, including hospital doctors, general practitioners, nurses and social health workers. The estimate was made by the unions of the Island returning from the national strike of November 20.
Doctors wanted
Susanna Montaldo, regional secretary of Anaao Assomed: «In all the facilities we are moving forward with an absolutely insufficient number of doctors, with some specialties that are more affected than others by the lack of professionals, in particular Anesthesia, Orthopedics and Surgery». All things considered, there are «over 500» white coats that are missing from the roll call in Sardinian hospitals.
Added to this is the historic shortage of general practitioners - around 500 in this case too -, with the constant cries of alarm that frequently rise from different territories: «Gallura has 20 thousand inhabitants currently without a general practitioner, as do many other towns in the center, and it is obvious that a territorial medicine that does not work does nothing but further overload the hospitals of Cagliari and Sassari that are already exhausted».
Nurses Knot
For nurses and healthcare workers the situation is even worse, with an overall shortage in staffing of about 3,500 professionals (2,000 nurses and 1,500 healthcare assistants). "The optimal parameters provide for an average ratio of one nurse for every six patients in the hospital wards, in Sardinian hospital facilities we have even reached wards with one nurse for every fifteen", explains Diego Murracino, regional manager of Nursing Up.
All the details on L'Unione Sarda on newsstands and on the digital edition
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