Capri. An ambulance carrying a patient on board, which departed Capri this morning, was denied boarding the Caremar ship from Naples. The medical vehicle, after the patient had undergone cancer treatment, was denied boarding due to the recent position taken by the shipping companies. This denial has been ongoing for days, prompting the mayor of Capri, Marino Lembo, to issue an order, notifying the shipowners of Caremar, to allow the island's sick patients to be transferred by sea. This morning, the vessel belonging to the Croce Azzurra di Padre Pio—the Capri volunteer association, headed by the parish priest Don Carmine Del Gaudio, which was scheduled to return from the port of Calata di Massa at 12:40—had departed Capri regularly, but the refusal to allow the patient to return triggered a full-blown emergency at the Calata di Massa boarding point, which was immediately transferred to the island of Capri. The Padre Pio Blue Cross ambulance is parked on the dock at the Naples port, while the mayor of Capri, from the Town Hall, has activated a crisis unit, communicating the serious incident to all authorities, including the Prefect and the Admiralty Offices, to ensure the ambulance carrying the patient can return to the island promptly for the next high-speed ferry at 5:25 PM. Meanwhile, this incident is sparking a full-blown institutional crisis, due to the health emergency and a tug-of-war with shipping companies over the right to healthcare.
The ambulance carrying the patient waiting to board for Capri was placed in the area designated for taxi parking, partially in the shade, at Calata Porta di Massa, in Naples, waiting to board. Francesco, the woman's son, explains: "this morning she managed to get up in her wheelchair to the passenger area on the ferry but now mum, after the therapy, just can't do it. They tell me that the problem is the lack of air in the garage area but in these modern ambulances there is no such problem. We've been here for two hours now and she is trying to rest, even though it's hot. Apparently, the only way to get her to the island is for her to sign a release for the two paramedics on board to be taken in a wheelchair to the passenger area". All this, however, adds the man, "causes her discomfort and is added to the after-effects of the therapy she had this morning. For us it is the first time that we have had to endure this discomfort because during previous therapies, when mom had to reach the city from the island, there was never a problem. We should leave at 17,30:XNUMX pm hoping that mom is strong enough to reach the passenger deck”. One of the health workers who is on the ambulance of the Croce Azzurra di Padre Pio says: “we would not like to do it, this is not the procedure for this type of patient but now, to return to the island, we have only one way, to take her in a wheelchair”. Another worker adds: “the hydroambulance is not always available, we cannot take her by helicopter to do the therapy and therefore the only solution remains the ambulances that are operational only thanks to the volunteer work of us workers”.
Regional councilor Francesco Emilio Borrelli and Valeria Ciarambino and Luigi Cirillo of the 5 Star Movement intervened on the matter. “We are shocked to learn of the episode of the cancer patient who was prevented from boarding an ambulance to return to the island of Capri. Despite her being particularly physically strained, the shipping company forced her to be transferred to a wheelchair to board. The humiliation and discomfort are added to the suffering of the disease. We also find it absurd that she was allowed to board on the outward journey and not on the return journey. The battle of the shipping companies that, appealing to a 2001 decree that they decided to apply after 18 years, prevent the boarding of ambulances transporting patients is being fought at the expense of the latter”. This is what regional councilor Francesco Emilio Borrelli of the Greens states. “This way – adds Borrelli – we cannot go on. We need to find a solution that allows the sick to be taken on the ferries by ambulance. The Prefect had scheduled a meeting with the parties but, at the moment, it has not yet taken place. We ask that this be done as soon as possible. This is a situation that is taking on emergency characteristics with significant inconvenience for the sick who are forced, despite their precarious physical conditions, to abandon the emergency vehicles to go to the halls”.
“An oncology patient, in delicate conditions following a treatment she underwent this morning, cannot be transferred from Capri to Naples because the hydroambulance is broken, yet De Luca is concerned with offending and threatening ministers and prime ministers so that they can get him out of the health commissionership. For over a month, the only hydroambulance available to the health workers at Capilupi hospital has been broken down, but the Emergency Department, despite the forecast of a considerable influx of tourists, has not taken any initiative to deal with any emergencies like the one that occurred this morning. It is known that, for safety reasons, shipping companies cannot transport vehicles with people on board. The poor patient was forced to face the journey in a wheelchair in the passenger area, although extremely debilitated. Human lives are at stake and there are not even the means available to rescue them or transfer them in the required time to better equipped hospitals and De Luca still has the courage to ask, in these conditions, to be released from the receivership, even threatening to sue President Conte and Minister Grillo". These are the regional councilors of the 5 Star Movement Valeria Ciarambino and Luigi Cirillo.
"In the face of this latest shameful case, which could be joined by others if we do not proceed as soon as possible to restore the hydroambulance service, we ask ourselves whether the League, with Undersecretary Garavaglia, still has the courage to judge Campania in a position to emerge from the receivership. Just as we ask ourselves how much longer Salvini is willing to violate that rule, which he himself voted for, which restored the incompatibility between the governor and the commissioner for health. We are increasingly convinced - conclude Ciarambino and Cirillo - that taking health care out of De Luca's hands is equivalent to saving human lives and giving back to the people of Campania the sacrosanct right to assistance".
EDITORIAL TEAM
Choose the social channel you want to subscribe to