Legambiente Campania says no to the Sorrento Peninsula Single Hospital

 Legambiente Campania is against the construction of the new single hospital for the Sorrento Peninsula and Amalfi Coast in Sant'Agnello.

The association appeals to the municipal council and the city council to avoid a choice that "is proving to be increasingly divisive for local communities and highly problematic both for the critical issues of an urban, environmental and landscape nature, and - notes Legambiente - for the functional repercussions of the health service to which over 100 thousand citizens of the Sorrento-Amalfi peninsula belong, in particular the municipalities of Vico Equense, Meta, Piano di Sorrento, Sant'Agnello, Sorrento, Massa Lubrense and Positano".

The decision to build a new hospital in Sant'Agnello "is based on a design idea born in 2011 which, after more than 10 years, has reached the final project with an estimate of the necessary investment of 65 million euros - recalls Legambiente - of which 61,750 paid by the State and 3,250 paid by the Region.

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Very appropriately, the new municipal administration led by Mayor Antonino Coppola deemed it useful to provide the City Council with the support of expert consultants for the examination of the observations received regarding the feasibility and compatibility of the work.

Among these, in particular, the one jointly signed by WWF and Italia Nostra even raises doubts about the suitability, due to its generality and vagueness, of the regional resolution of variation to the PUT of the Sorrento-Amalfi peninsula referred to in regional law 35/1987, alleging in particular the violation of specific provisions of law and the conflict with the prescriptions of the PUT”.

For Legambiente, some additional critical issues are of “particular gravity”, which it lists: “the location-construction choice leads to a further increase in building, with a consequent significant land consumption.

A new five-story building, located on a site of about one hectare, currently occupied mostly by citrus groves, with a volume of 121 thousand cubic meters, a height of over 16 meters and a building index more than five times higher than the current one. To date, this structure has not been provided with any relevant parking, so much so that it cannot even satisfy the needs of healthcare workers, much less those of visitors and those serving short-term hospital stays”.

Again, critical issues related to: “mobility, considering the significant limitations inherent in the transport system of the coastal settlement context, which determine very serious accessibility problems, both with regard to private and public transport, both by rail and by road.

To the hydrogeological risk, in relation to the existence on the newly built lot of conditions of “very high” hydrogeological risk (R4) certified by the Psai, connected to the presence of the San Giuseppe stream; to the compromise of the landscape and its lack of protection in light of the provisions of the current superordinate landscape protection instrument”.

Furthermore, to these critical issues related to the protection of the territorial, environmental and landscape context, are added those relating to the "functionality of the health service and in general to the protection of the health of citizens and tourists".

Legambiente argues that "the theme of reorganizing the health system through concentration in the so-called Single Hospitals is certainly positive if it aims not at the mere reduction of health facilities, but at optimizing the health offer for the inhabitants of the specific territory. The Single Hospital of Sant'Agnello does not appear to satisfy these founding assumptions.

Centralizing in a new hospital the functions performed by the three existing facilities (the two hospitals of Vico Equense and Sorrento and the Mariano Lauro health district of Sant'Agnello), which currently operate in an integrated and synergic manner, each with different functions in a single structure to be built in Sant'Agnello, does not automatically guarantee the improvement of public health.

The articulation dislocated with respect to the catchment area, the logistical difficulties due to the particular geomorphological situation of the site, the difficult accessibility due to the location in the historic center are not optimal prerequisites for the role that a Single Hospital must fulfill". Legambiente's request is that the adaptation of the Prg to the modification to the PUT made by the Campania Region to allow the construction of the new Single Hospital in place of the current Health District 59 not be approved.