Department closed for the holiday, Minister takes a hard line: there is an investigation by the Prosecutor's Office

Naples. Department closed for the party of the head physician: now there is also an investigation by the Naples Prosecutor's Office. They are looking for responsibilities and possible violations in the case of the Ospedale del Mare and the closure of the Vascular Surgery department for 12 hours, in conjunction with the party of the head physician Francesco Pignatelli in a club in Pozzuoli. After the indefinite suspension of Pignatelli by the ASL Napoli 1, the Carabinieri of the NAS - delegated by the prosecutor led by the prosecutor Giovanni Melillo - checked the shifts and holidays of doctors and nurses of the department to understand what happened last Friday when the vascular surgery department was closed and the 4 hospitalized patients were placed in the surgery department for the night. The military acquired the files of the department workers in the Trauma Center department and in the offices of the general management to establish who was on vacation and who was free from service and to cross-reference the information with that of the head physician's party and with the photos taken at the evening attended by numerous guests. The patients of the ward, during the night between 6 and 7 July, had been transferred to another ward and another moved to the San Giovanni Bosco hospital.

The investigation by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office is in addition to that of the management of the ASL Napoli 1 Centro headed by Mario Forlenza and the Minister of Health Giulia Grillo who visited the Ospedale del Mare yesterday wanted the ministry to also clarify what happened. "Campania deserves attention. The one about the department being closed for the party seemed like fake news, then we sent the NAS - said the minister during the visit -. They are here to solve the problems, not to cut the ribbons. It is not enough today to say that there are people who are sorry. This is something that should not have happened. There are various degrees of responsibility and we will ascertain them all and act accordingly". The Public Prosecutor's Office is evaluating whether there are grounds to investigate any responsible parties for interruption of public service, after all, as emerges from the documents already acquired, the same primary Piscitelli had granted some of the department's operators (nurses and doctors) holidays in conjunction with the famous evening.
The case came to light after the public complaint by the regional councilor of the Greens Francesco Borrelli who highlighted the strange coincidence of the closure with the head physician's holiday. Pignatelli and the colleagues involved in the affair explain that it was a coincidence and that the ward corridors were emptied due to a lack of staff due to the holidays requested by the nurses and to which the head physician did not oppose an overtime shift to avoid disruptions. That night there was a doctor available in case of emergency. Furthermore, the organization of the ward and the decision to move the patients to general surgery had not been communicated to the manager Forlenza. Perhaps this is the detail that, more than others, leaves one perplexed.