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* Minister says state must intervene in Campania region
* The woes of Naples reflect the problems of the poorest south of Italy
* Lack of funding, mismanagement of the damaged health system
By Ciro De Luca, Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante
NAPLES, Italy, Nov. 12 (Reuters) – The health crisis in Italy’s third largest city, Naples, is out of control, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday after a video was posted on the media. social media showing a corpse lying in a hospital toilet.
The unidentified man was a suspected coronavirus suspect who was awaiting a test in a crowded and squalid hospital emergency room, which was also shown in the amateur video.
Health officials said they were investigating the death, but Di Maio said it was just the latest shocking incident he had heard about in recent days in his home region of Campania, which focused on the Mediterranean port city.
“The situation in Naples and in many parts of Campania is out of control. The central government must intervene because time is running out,” Di Maio said.
Officials said Campania reflected a wider health calamity unfolding across much of southern Italy, which emerged largely unscathed from the initial wave of COVID-19 that mainly hit the north. But he is hammered by the second wave.
The number of cases nationwide passed the million mark on Wednesday – half of those infections emerging in the past 19 days alone. The death toll stands at 42,953 – the sixth highest number in the world.
Hospitals across the country have struggled to cope with the surge in COVID-19 numbers, but the poorer south has appeared particularly ill-equipped to cope despite all summer to bolster their defenses.
Patients in Naples have been given oxygen and drops through their car windows as they wait hours for COVID tests or to be admitted to hospital. Further south, on the island of Sicily, the mayor of Palermo warned on Monday that his region faces an “inevitable massacre” as infections rise there.
“The north has always had a well-equipped health system spread throughout the country. The situation there may not be optimal, but the south in comparison is a wasteland,” said Carlo Palermo, head of the ANAAO-ASSOMED doctors’ union. Reuters.
MISMANAGEMENT
The latest government figures from 2018 show this gap, with annual per capita health spending rising to 2,054 euros ($ 2,425) in the northern Liguria region and 1,973 euros in neighboring Emilia-Romagna. In Campania, it was 1,697 euros, the lowest in Italy, and 1,706 euros in neighboring Calabria.
But it’s not just a question of money. Poor management has also taken its toll in the south.
The issue came into focus this month when Calabria’s health commissioner was interviewed on state television and initially denied any responsibility for having to develop a long overdue emergency plan to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
To prove his point, Saverio Cotticelli, a retired general, wrote the letter from the Department of Health setting out the guidelines. Still on camera, the truth slowly crossed his mind that he was indeed responsible for developing the plan.
He resigned the next day.
Calabria had 146 intensive care beds available at the start of the year. That number had risen to just 154 by the end of October, as the Rome government asked regions to double emergency room capacity over the summer.
When the national government divided the country into three tiers this month to reflect different health risks, it immediately put Calabria in the “red zone” and imposed a partial lockdown.
Using an algorithm based on 21 indicators, Campania, to everyone’s surprise, was placed in the least risky “yellow zone”. The decision raised questions as to whether the region was providing reliable data, and Rome’s health ministry dispatched inspectors to examine the situation.
Maurizio Cappiello, a doctor in the emergency services at Naples Cardarelli Hospital and a member of the ANAAO-ASSOMED union, said the virus was spreading exponentially.
“We have passed a critical level of alarm. The only way to deal with the emergency in Campania is a total lockdown,” he said. ($ 1 = 0.8467 euros) (Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante brought back from Rome edited by Mark Heinrich)
Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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