The goal was to test the capacity of hospitals in the province north of Naples to receive and treat a large number of injured people in the event of a potential emergency or natural disaster. A stress test—today at the hospitals in Giugliano and Frattamaggiore, tomorrow at the hospital in Pozzuoli—designed as part of the strengthening of safety measures related to the seismic crisis in the Phlegraean Fields. A total of 20 "extra patients" arrived at the Giugliano and Frattamaggiore hospitals today in just thirty minutes. In short, a much higher-than-average influx was expected at the two facilities, which serve a population of several hundred thousand people.
First, the triage, or classification of the emergency, and then, after a visit to the emergency room for initial treatment, the patients were transferred to the various departments: trauma, emergency surgery, and so on. In Giugliano, the "phantom patients" (very young nursing students wearing bibs to distinguish them from the real patients) arrived both by their own vehicles and by ambulance. Traffic conditions on the roads surrounding the two hospitals were also assessed; these roads must always be easily accessible for ambulances.
Then, once they reached the emergency room (in a separate area so as not to interfere with normal activity: in fact, during the simulations, two 'real' ambulances arrived with two patients) they stopped at the triage where the nurses assigned them a code: from red to yellow, from green to white.
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"At the moment, we're not thinking about when to conduct evacuation drills," Pozzuoli Mayor Luigi Manzoni explained on the sidelines of the regional assembly of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI) Campania. "This week, we held a meeting at the prefecture, and next week we'll discuss the matter in more detail. Minister Musumeci will visit Naples and the Phlegraean Fields on the 13th."
The Minister of Civil Protection himself today once again described the Campi Flegrei as "under special surveillance," reiterating that there's no need to send alarming messages, but that it's difficult to predict how the situation will evolve. Musumeci, who had spoken of a lack of regional funding for that area, was responded to today by Governor Vincenzo De Luca: "The government bears full responsibility, having failed to release the Development and Cohesion Fund resources due to the South and Campania for a year and two months, resources that are needed precisely to implement the Campi Flegrei decree regarding infrastructure, transportation, and environmental emergencies."
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