Mattias Mainiero answers.
I don't understand why in the newspapers and on television there is only talk of medical malpractice, when we all know that in Italy there are also structures and doctors of excellence that the whole world envies us. I could tell dozens of positive episodes, one of which I experienced firsthand in a Roman hospital where I was recently admitted. Instead, I only read and listen to stories of forgotten gauze in the abdomen of patients, victims of trivial operations, dilapidated hospitals, distracted or unprepared doctors. And good health is not news. Why don't you ever talk about it? Chiara Allegri, Rome.
Of course there are cases of excellence. The trouble, however, is that there is also something else, and this is what we need to talk about in the hope that things will improve. I'll tell you a personal story, not because I like making my facts known, but because I think it could be useful for the discussion. Bracciano hospital, just outside Rome. Those who arrive in the emergency room must first fill out a sheet. There is no nurse in reception, not even the shadow of a doctor or porter: a desk, a computer, a lighted lamp, an empty chair and a stack of papers. It is necessary to indicate name, surname, age, residence and also the symptoms that are felt. If you do not fill in, you will not pass the acceptance. It is the DIY of the health emergency, as well as the triumph of the stupidest of bureaucracies: the patient, perhaps unconscious, who questions himself and describes himself. Who knows, perhaps, recovering from the coma, he will write on the sheet of paper: Mario Rossi, 40 years old, state of acute and inexplicable drowsiness. I indicate my name, surname, age and under symptom I write: "I am dying". When he finally arrives, the nurse on duty asks me for my first and last name, age and symptoms. Then he lowers his head, reads the slip and says: "Your case is urgent, I'll get it over with right away." He says it without flinching. Inside trained and conscientious doctors. But hospitals, unfortunately, are also made up of an outsider. And unfortunately, alongside many cases of health excellence, which no one doubts, there are these cases of excellent stupidity that transform a civilized and normal country into a less civilized and normal country. Don't you think it's better to talk about the latter instead of the former? Free of 28/12/2007 p. 24
