Letter to the Minister of Health to report the efficiency and professionalism of the staff of the Solofra Hospice

Medical care and assistance for those affected by progressive and advanced diseases, with the
aim of safeguarding the conditions and dignity of the person and to preserve the best
quality of life possible. And this is what happens every day at Pain Control
Center Hospice of Solofra, the residential center for pain therapy and palliative care
of the ASL Avellino.
Therapeutic interventions, control of the patient's pain and symptoms, psychological assistance,
social and spiritual also aimed at family members, recreational activities: the Hospice of Solofra has been for years
a point of reference of great excellence in the healthcare panorama, not only regional.
Countless, since always, the expressions of esteem and gratitude addressed to the medical team of the ASL
Avellino and to the various professional figures of the Cooperative Work for Health and Home
of Cura Sant'Anna, the two organizations that manage the services of the health facility.
Recently, the relatives of Mrs. Alfonsina Barone, originally from Montefalcione, have
wanted to send a long and heartfelt letter to the Minister of Health to report
the organization, professionalism, efficiency and humanity of the Hospice staff
Solofra, who distinguished himself for his commitment to alleviating the suffering of their relative,
supporting the family during the hard and difficult period of hospitalization at the residential center
from Solofra.
In the letter, signed by his daughter Amorosa Guarino, resident in Montemiletto, the following are stated:
also mentioned, with great appreciation, the Atripalda Health District and the Company
PAIN CONTROL CENTER HOSPICE OF SOLOFRA

0825530341

Moscati Hospital of Avellino, and it is in the hospital of the capital that Mrs. Barone has
spent a period of hospitalization receiving excellent care and assistance.
This is the full text of the letter sent to the Minister of Health:
“Honorable Mr. Minister, I hope these words of thanks and appreciation reach you.
sincere towards those who daily struggle to uphold their own and others' dignity,
carrying out their work with the utmost strength against a reality that is increasingly
distorted; in a historical moment in which we hear too often about poor healthcare in Italy, and
too many times your work is the object of severe criticism, I have been able to observe the high
level of professional skills expressed throughout the Avellino healthcare circuit. I
I refer in particular to the AOSG of Avellino directed by Dr. Renato Pizzuti, to the Director
General ASL of Avellino, Dr. Maria Morgante, at the Atripalda Health District, directed
by Dr. Piero De Masi, but a note of appreciation and heartfelt satisfaction goes to all the
staff of the Pain Control Center-Hospice of Solofra directed by Dr. Vincenzo Pepe.
There will be many like this one of mine or maybe few if any, I don't know, but
I just want to share with you, a life experience that leaves its mark forever; me and the
my family found ourselves catapulted into a situation that will surely leave scars and
will come back alive every night until it is. It all starts after my mother's hospitalization, Barone
Alfonsina, born in Montefalcione, a small village in the Avellino area in the distant 33, a
hospitalization made urgently on a quiet afternoon of February 21, 2019
to the SG Moscati Hospital in Avellino. A car ride, with my mind already turned
at the exhausting thought of the long wait, which we would have to digest once we had crossed the
door of the Emergency Room! And in fact it is at 17pm on that 21st February that our
agony… a yellow code that will lead to a first visit, for the many people requesting it
assistance, at around 22pm and then finding out in the middle of the night that the next day it would be
an ultrasound was needed to confirm a situation that already boded for the worst! One night
experienced by my family at home in an infinite and tormented half-sleep, by my mother on
a bed in the emergency room and next to it a chair on which I spent the whole night,
I, his only daughter, witnessing a situation almost like a "Dantean" circle for the continuous
coming and going of people and medical personnel forced to find their way between stretchers, beds and incessant
requests for help, sometimes almost circus-like because like us many other people find themselves
daily in similar conditions and the operating personnel are forced to real
their own magic to try to solve everything… (I would like to point out that the said Department
he is forced to cope with and fight critical situations on a daily basis, up to
to the point of absurdity, with resources and personnel that are often more than red code
paradoxically speaking; I would challenge anyone but only they can do it due to their skill and
professionalism… and I can only say thank you!) … this endless night has
unfortunately, it will accompany you for a few days with the uncertainty of the diagnosis and the continuous
questions: “But when will I know what happened to my mother? How long will we have to stay
with the constant worry of understanding what happened? A place will become available and, if
necessary, will they take mom to some department?”. On Saturday afternoon, tired and
worried about her clinical conditions, they told me that they would soon transfer her
in the Geriatrics department where he will stay for just under a month and where he received the
care of doctors and nurses.
A round of applause goes to those who assisted my mother and comforted me in difficult moments.
increasingly towards oblivion… and who have found a breath of fresh air in the Hospice – Pain
Control Center of Solofra, a cutting-edge institute for palliative care. I still remember
that journey with the ambulance of a few kilometers, made with the anguish and torment of

who does not know what will happen. Arriving at the Center, almost as if to anticipate the impotence of those who arrive
towards the greatness of the problem, because it is nestled in the jagged green of the mountains
solofrane seems to be in a high mountain tourist village, for tranquility, colors
and smiles of those who, first and at the door waiting for you, despite knowing in their hearts that you are gone
went there because you need moral and physical help and not to "give birth to a child"
to love”. Unfortunately, crossing that threshold takes you into a reality where everything loses its
importance… everything begins to take on dark shades… from that day on you will see
everything with different eyes because you realize that when everything possible has been done
nothing more is possible! And that's how you begin to take the hard blows of an evil that silently
advances… it overwhelms those who have it and you who are close to it… it consumes you… it feels like you are sinking into
sometimes in the almost desolate silence at certain moments of the Hospice… but the rings of the
bells, almost like alarm sirens, wake you up, bringing you back to alertness, in the company of
some tears, that angels in the "green and blue" coats with much love and dedication towards the
their own work… they dry and try in their own way to transform it into joy! These…
angels are like shadows because they appear at every ring of the bell or the slightest request,
they are always present and very loving in taking care of patients and family members when necessary,
despite being engaged in an incessant work of physical, psychological and moral support.
This staff includes: doctors, nurses, health and social workers and volunteers, who with
great dedication and professionalism carry out this delicate work. I can only
thank you all… I heartily bless the medical staff composed of Dr. Vincenzo Pepe –
medical oncologist director, coordinator of the Bisaccia and Solofra Hospice of the ASL
Avellino, by Dr. Carmela Fasano and Dr. Luisa Rizzo. Then the head nurse Emilia Cetro;
the URP manager, Dr. Carmine Clericuzio; the sociologist, Dr. Elena De Vinco; the
psychologist, Dr. Elena Altieri; nurses Guido Landi, Francesca Giorgione, Alfonsina
Good morning, Francesca Rea, Cristian Adiletta, Antonella Giaquinto, Antonio Covino, Rosanna
Meriano, Federica Giliberti, Annamaria Matrone; the social health workers Patrizia Ciampi,
Patrizia Marano, Giacomo Amendola, Diletta Di Lorenzo, Lucrezia D'Errico, Loredana
Latches, Angela Sacco, Rosa Sannino, Emilio Spiniello, Amalia Picariello, Nunzio Simeone,
Rita Di Prizio; the Center's service workers, Michela Aversa and Angela Ciampa.
My dearest hug goes to all of you who have made every ringing of the bell less painful.
clock that has passed since I entered your Center; I hope that these words of mine are
perceived not only as a "thank you" but as a message of esteem and affection, a sign of
strength to never give up especially towards the indefinite that leaves no chance to those who have
the bitter misadventure of having to cross paths with him and having to live with him. I have
started living as if all days were the same but that they marked the calendar
anniversaries and birthdays, lastly my mother's, which will never come back
more like those who were and that perhaps thanks to all of you, my family and I, were able to
share one last time! I breathed and felt that support, day after day,
while moment after moment I appreciated the passion with which each single operator,
whether a doctor, nurse or service personnel, each in his own way, dedicated himself
daily to my situation.
Smiles, unexpected phrases, words of support and comfort cost nothing, and at Pain
Control Center have been generously donated. The professional skills, the almost normal
accessibility to relationships with medical and nursing staff, constant availability
in providing explanations and in taking care of updating us family members, they have made and
continue to make these moments less bitter. I finally believe that anyone, sick or

whether family member, has the right to live until the end with the utmost dignity and this
at the Hospice of Solofra it was possible.
I am aware that this odyssey has been marked by moments of despair…
bitterness… acceptance… tears shed… of infinite whys… of critical moments… but it is
equally true that thanks to all of you we have managed to establish a balance between suffering and
consolation, between despair and resignation, which made the most insurmountable of problems
less difficult to digest, even if unsolvable.
My most grateful gratitude and loving blessing also goes to the Director
General of the AOSG of Avellino, Dr. Renato Pizzuti, to the General Director of the ASL of Avellino
Dr. Maria Morgante, and to the Health Director of the Atripalda District Dr. Piero De
Masi, who are the promoters of a health organization that knows how to distinguish itself in moments
perhaps that at a national level it is a bit deficient. I hope that these words of mine reach
All mentioned with the greatest possible esteem and affection.
To all the highly qualified staff mentioned, who despite infinite difficulties
organizational, logistical and economic, continues to firmly believe in its own
difficult mission, I want to express gratitude and appreciation for accompanying and supporting
who, like me, finds themselves living experiences of this kind.
Some might think or answer: "… well, we're just doing our job!". On the other hand
I can only reply by saying that "... not everyone does their job with the same
desire or love!”.