The end of the "token workers" is near, several emergency rooms on the island are at risk of closing on June 30th due to lack of staff, and the Region is trying everything to recruit doctors to deploy in emergency-urgent care.
Even with direct calls from the local health authorities to professionals whose contracts are about to expire, who are reportedly made direct job offers , a practice contested by the company providing the service, which has sent a formal warning: immediately cease these contacts and do not conclude any ongoing negotiations, otherwise there will be legal action and a request for compensation.
The letter from MST Group was sent in recent days , subject: formal notice and formal notice for interference with contractual relations and the removal of collaborators. The company explains that it recently received (documented) information that "a systematic and ongoing practice has been initiated aimed at directly contacting doctors contracted with MST, suggesting the opening of a special competition and/or the signing of individual contracts, in order to acquire their services directly, bypassing the relationship with MST."
The Vicenza-based company—which won the tender to provide an active on-call service for Sardinia's health facilities in March 2023 and will continue the service for another 10 days—emphasizes that to execute the contract, it has established "a complex operational infrastructure, overseeing the procurement, skills screening, specialized training, and logistical and management coordination of a significant number of independent medical professionals, each bound to the company by a service contract. This contract expressly includes a non-competition agreement lasting 12 months from the termination of the employment relationship , prohibiting the doctor from maintaining direct or indirect professional relationships with the healthcare facilities receiving the service."
Of course, there is a willingness to "cooperate," an offer to find solutions to continue "collaboration," but as of today, the fact remains that around a hundred payroll workers will have to stop working in Sardinian facilities, and a thousand emergency room shifts will remain vacant.
