"If even the out-of-hours medical service closes for holidays, then we are officially at the end of the line. Local healthcare is in disarray, and those who should guarantee it keep turning the other way.
In Santa Maria, a densely populated neighborhood of Catanzaro, the out-of-hours medical post remains closed for three consecutive days, from last Friday night until 8 a.m. on Tuesday, July 1. The reason? No doctors available to cover the shifts.
On the door, a cold notice from the Asp informs users of yet another disgrace: no one will provide assistance, you're on your own. Meanwhile, the elderly, chronically ill, and vulnerable people have been completely abandoned, forced to turn to an emergency room already at breaking point, or worse, to forgo care altogether.
The Asp of Catanzaro, instead of finding solutions, merely informed Mayor Fiorita with a formal communication. This is total abdication of responsibility. The question is inevitable: what has happened to public healthcare?
This is no longer an isolated incident. The exodus of doctors from the public system is now a hemorrhage, and no one seems willing to stop it. We urge the Asp and President Occhiuto, in his role as Commissioner ad acta, to intervene urgently and responsibly, finding immediate and structural solutions to put an end to this serious service failure. Because if action is not taken now, tomorrow will be too late."
Press release from city councilors Antonio Barberio and Giovanni Costa.