In the Sardinia Region, two recent events of interest in the healthcare sector have occurred. Regional Health Councilor Armando Bartolazzi was removed from office by Regional President Alessandra Todde, who simultaneously assumed the role herself until a new Councilor is appointed. Subsequently, on December 13th, the extraordinary plan to reduce waiting lists began at Local Health Authority No. 8 and Arnas Brotzu, a plan strongly supported by Alessandra Todde herself. She appears to have decided to take a stand, personally managing what is perhaps the most complex sector.
Among the objectives is to recover thirty thousand people on the waiting list. This is not a question, quite the opposite, given that President Todde appears to have chosen to assume direct responsibility for the success of the current initiative and future ones. An interim role, in short, that will "last as long as necessary." To put it differently, and if one were to interpret the significance of this determination on a purely political level, one could speculate that Regional President Alessandra Todde may have essentially chosen to assume responsibility for a department, specifically that of healthcare, both to send an important signal of political stability and to directly coordinate an undoubtedly strategic sector that, in the current circumstances, appears to require a decisive push, not only administratively, but also, and above all, in actual implementation. Especially considering that waiting lists could well be considered the most obvious symptom of the weakening of all forms of investment and organization in public healthcare, with the resulting expansion of private healthcare, which appears to have become embedded in social reality, carving out a position for itself directly deriving from the inefficiencies of the public system. To put it another way, and to express the concept still at a political level, it would seem that the elimination of waiting lists and the centralization of the role in the person of the President was an option inspired by the needs of territorial governance and political balance. This is even more true when the centralization of any delegation might well serve the purpose of maximum efficiency. And even more so when, strictly speaking, the issue of waiting lists is not just a current and/or even recent problem, as it appears to have persisted and persisted for years, thus necessitating the rationalization and systematization of measures deemed appropriate and useful, first to contain the problem and then to rebalance and streamline it.
Beyond the value proposition of the waiting list reduction plan, it would be important to implement healthcare investments, focusing on increasing the number of medical staff, to allow for more acceptable work rates and enhance service delivery, including maximum efficiency. The road is still long, but, to follow an old adage, "well begun is half done." This means that simply launching a certain initiative with a decisive method would seem to translate into overcoming the most complex phase of the project—the actual beginning—paving the way for a smooth conclusion.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro
