"Don't say cat if you don't have it in the bag" goes a wise old adage. And normally prudence represents, or should represent, the guideline of any intervention concerning the management of the territory and its resources. Unfortunately, however, caution and weighting do not always guide the actions of the institutions and / or those who represent them, resulting in the concreteness and rationalization of the interventions seem to have become (and perhaps always have been) unknown qualities in the context. of the administrative system of a regional nature.
In fact, according to the latest news, within this month the Sardinian regional council should deliberate the start of the construction of some new health facilities (four in all). This was announced by the President of the Region Christian Solinas during his speech at the post-pandemic conference and in the presence of Undersecretary Pierpaolo Sileri. Whether it was the usual externalization of "protagonism", or the need to let a semblance of operations useful to justify the "assisted" stay of this council at the helm of the region shine through before a representative of the Central Government, it matters little. Certainly, the news, considered by itself, could even appear to most people in the illusory terms of a formal reassurance, as it refers to a sector, the health sector, overwhelmed not only by the contingent emergency pandemic circumstances but also, and above all, by the " mala gestio ”which took place over the previous years due to the inertia of the ruling classes from time to time in the government of the region. But the conditional is certainly a must, if only for the very heavy under-understandings with a worrying implication that seem to accompany the "announcement", since typically and incontrovertibly oriented, those under-understood, to let go of their destiny, as if they were a "gangrene" to be eradicated, the various internal areas and existing structures in order to favor, making their administration and management easier, the large metropolitan areas of Southern and Northern Sardinia, or those of Cagliari and Sassari. As if to say, and without any founding reason, because this is the impression that derives from it: "To those who have, even more will be given, to those who do not have, even what they have will be taken away" . However, without considering that at the basis of any reflex of an instrumental nature inherent in the development of the territory and the best rationalization of its resources there is always and only the action of the ruling classes which should have, and should be called, from time to time, and unfortunately they have not been and are not, to give an account of their actions by assuming the consequences.
In short, we can dare, but with judgment, to offer the correct interpretation (or at least what seems to be) of the expressive circumstance embodied by the maximum exponent of the Sardinian Region who would seem to have made it legitimate to represent a reserved health development plan, it would seem, only to the large metropolitan centers, and this evidently only in the name, observing an attitude of total forgetfulness with respect to the existing sanitary facilities, located in the most depressed areas of the geographical context of reference, those of central Sardinia to be clear, which remained without adequate forecast of (future) functionality of existing infrastructures, now obsolete and unable to respond to the needs of connecting the territory and, for this very reason, disproportionate, uneconomic, and unable to promote the start of a real process of health reform .
Let's be clear: no one with common sense and real practical sense can ever expect a miracle. It would be illusory and not very serious to demand a radical change overnight. The problem is that, apparently, and we hope to make a mistake, the Regional Council does not seem to have elaborated any development plan for the internal areas, continually abandoned to themselves.
First of all, because, contrary to what the leading Sardinian exponent would seem to have wanted to under-understand, the hospitals already exist: they are collapsing, but there are .
So why would it be rather necessary to invest in the search for personnel to fill the gaps present and repeatedly constantly reported in the medical guards and emergency rooms.
Furthermore, because rather than foreseeing the construction of four new structures allegedly hyper-equipped in the total lack of suitable personnel to make them work, it would be necessary to bring the existing ones up to speed (the hospitals of Nuoro, Lanusei, Sorgono etc) guaranteeing the Sardinian people the appreciable access to treatment by making use of the national health service.
Finally, because the construction of new health facilities represents neither more nor less than the usual "decoy" to be used when the "management nothing" of a "broken down" council has become so evident that it can no longer be hidden .
To say it otherwise: new hospitals are not needed, it is rather necessary to guarantee the operation of existing ones through targeted investments, placing it in a real development plan that does not forget any of the Sardinian territorial realities. The mere claim to create single poles of health development by detaching them from the phenomenal reality of the territorial context of reference since they are destined to serve only areas already widely "served" (and with a high intensity of capital compared to the hinterland) which would absorb all the benefits of a facade initiative appears in all its improbability. Especially when we want to consider that most likely the new structures, where actually built, may not have any positive repercussions in terms of service provision, in terms of employment and may not produce any induced activities in the surrounding area. They would arise as pure and simple "cathedrals in the desert" and Christian Solinas and his council would be remembered as those who wanted to carry out a large, costly enterprise in a minimal and inadequate territorial context, only to see it fail on the be born. All with a huge waste of public money for which no one would be called to answer and to the detriment of a people, the Sardinian one, completely unable to enjoy infrastructure and services while paying the cost. We meditate.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore
(Lawyer - Nuoro)
