Molise Without Doctors; Doctors Arrive from Cuba

Venezuelan doctors arrived in Molise during the Covid emergency to address staffing shortages in regional hospitals. Now, new "reinforcements" of white coats from Cuba are expected to ensure the presence of professionals in the region. This was announced by the President of the Region, Francesco Roberti, in an attempt to remedy a situation that is bordering on paradoxical. Molise, grappling with the Healthcare Deficit Recovery Plan since 2007 and under special administration since 2009, continues to be unattractive, even for young doctors. This emergency is impacting the functionality of hospital departments and, consequently, the ability to guarantee essential levels of care. Unsuccessful competitive exams, appeals to retired doctors and foreign professionals, and agreements with health authorities and facilities outside the region solidify the situation in which the regional public healthcare system has been forced for years. In 2019, then-Commissioner for Health, Angelo Giustini, also proposed using retired military doctors to "overcome this agonizing stalemate in the governance of the Regional Health Service and citizens' right to equal and universal access." "Without doctors, healthcare cannot be provided," said Roberti. "The agreement with Cuban doctors, based on the model already tested in Calabria, represents a concrete idea to ensure the availability of the necessary number of professionals capable of reaching every corner of Molise." However, this solution is not appreciated by the national secretary of UGL Salute, Gianluca Giuliano. It is "a stopgap solution that fails to address the real issues of the public healthcare crisis." "It is unacceptable," he explains, "that a country like Italy fails to invest seriously in internal staff, preferring instead to resort to makeshift solutions. We need stable contracts, adequate wages, better working conditions, and concrete incentives to stop the flight of Italian doctors and nurses abroad and into the private sector." Precisely for this reason, Governor Roberti is looking to the future and focusing on the role of the University of Molise. "We are training young doctors in specialties currently lacking in our hospitals, and over the next five years, Unimol residents will be able to join, grow professionally, and at the same time strengthen Molise's healthcare system." Eighteen years under the Recovery Plan and sixteen under special administration have therefore not helped to address the deficit and steer the regional healthcare system out of its depths. "We have inherited flawed planning and a disastrous situation," Roberti commented, "which must be addressed. It is incomprehensible how, with the elimination of the old local health authorities and the introduction of a single healthcare company, costs and, consequently, debt have increased." For the governor, this situation also arises "because of a system that in the past has championed elite-based thinking, without considering the future of the regions and the new generations." The governor then reiterated the mission of politics: "to lower costs and reduce hospital admissions."