Hospitals risk closure due to health underfunding says CGIL

Hospitals risk closure due to health underfunding says CGIL

(ANSA) - ROME, 02 NOV - Hospitals may have to close in Italy because of underfunding of the national health service, the leader of the public sector division of the CGIL trade union said on Monday. "With this gradual and inexorable reduction in resources for the national health service, there is a very high risk of further cuts to services, the closure of hospitals, and the devaluation of workers—who are already under increasing stress and who will be pushed even more to go and work elsewhere," said FP CGIL General Secretary Federico Bozzanca in a statement on why his division will take part on the general strike called for November 20. "In short: we are facing a very serious undermining of the constitutionally guaranteed right to health. "Germany allocates 11% of its GDP to public health care, France 9.4%, Sweden 9.3%, the United Kingdom 9.2%, and Slovakia 6.4%. "In 2025, the figure in Italy stood at 6.2% and it will decline even further in the coming years. "These are dramatic figures that risk condemning the National Health Service to a terrible agony. "Reducing healthcare funding is a deliberate political choice—as is making a minor investment in emergency department staff while neglecting other services, effectively shrinking the scope of the public healthcare system. "It is a strategy that shifts the focus from a right to a privilege, from the public sector to the private sector—a private sector, incidentally, that fails to renew national labour contracts. "It undermines the professionals who dedicate themselves to patient care every day and compromises what was once considered a hallmark of excellence: the National Health Service. "Furthermore, unlike in other European countries, public spending in Italy is shrinking while private spending is rising; this means that the financial burden is increasingly being shifted onto families. "Consequently, the phenomenon of people forgoing medical care—in 2025, as much as 9.6% of the population, or over 5.6 million people, reported having to skip at least one specialist consultation or diagnostic test despite needing it—is set to become even more severe. "We are witnessing the gradual dismantling of the National Health Service". (ANSA). Read article...