Superior Health Council, Grillo revokes the 30 members not by right: "Indisputable value, but let's make room for the new"

The Minister of Health dismisses the 30 members appointed at the end of 2017: "I have decided to give a signal of discontinuity, but some of them may be appointed again". The outgoing president Siquilini: "I don't see scientific reasons and among other things he has never met us". The pharmacologist Garattini, one of the "expelled": "It had never happened to me in 15 years"

il Fatto Quotidiano – 3 December 2018

Giulia Grillo has revoked there appointment of the 30 members not by right of the Higher Board of Health, the technical body-advisory of the Ministry of Health. The decision was made known with a revocation decree and shared with the members via email. The representatives of the institutions – ministry, drug agency And Higher Institute of Health - I am members by right and they stayed in place. The current non-executive members had been appointed by the then minister Beatrice Lorenzin by decree of 1 December 2017 and took office on 20 December of the same year. The mandate should have lasted three years, but until 5 December Minister Grillo had the right to revoke that decision. “I decided to give a sign of discontinuity compared to the past - explained the minister in a note - We are the government of change and, as I have already done for the appointments within my competence in the various bodies and committees of the ministry, I have chosen to open the doors to other deserving personalities. I'm sure some CSS components could be re-appointed, certainly not the top management, who must have the trust and full harmony with the minister in office". Grillo underlined “theindisputable technical-scientific value, but – he added – it is time to make room for the new”.

From the top comes the voice of the outgoing president of the CSS Roberta Siquilini, ordinary of Hygiene to Turin: “Given the high thickness of the members that make up the CSS, I don't see any scientific reason behind the decision of the Minister of Health Giulia Grillo. We were caught off guard and only notified of the revocation of appointments today through a letter. It is obviously within the prerogatives of the minister to decide on a revocation of the appointments, but Not neither I understand the reason since to date the CSS has not even had the opportunity to make yourself known nor to meet Giulia Grillo”.

The Superior Council of Health is the body to which the minister addresses himself, as well as in the cases expressly established by law, in all the others in which questions or problems of scientific technical value before the adoption of legislative, regulatory or administrative acts. An explanation is given by the former Minister of Health in the Berlusconi government, Girolamo Sirchia: “If the minister believes that he does not have people in the Superior Health Council who have his trust, but instead have a different vision of health, then it is within the minister's powers to initiate a renewal of the CSS” he says. In short, “no one discusses the scientific and technical value of the components, but maybe it was one issue of political trust. I understand the bitterness of the outgoing group, but I also understand that a minister who is at his premiere experience, at the first 'exit' as a minister, may want some opinions '100 percent guaranteed' also from a political point of view.

A choice, that of withdrawing all the components en bloc, which has never happened before, underlines the pharmacologist Silvio Garattini, president and founder of theMario Negri Institute Of Milan, one of the leading exponents of the Italian scientific research. "The minister has the faculty and has decided to exercise it - comments Garattini - I don't know what the reason could be, in the 15 years in which I was a member of the CSS, it never happened. We are only sorry that the minister has never met us”. According to ministry sources, however, the revocation was only possible en bloc and is not possible individually. Among those who will end their mandate early, there are also many personalities from the world of health, such as geneticists Joseph Novelli And Bruno Dallapiccola, and the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Rocco Bellantone. It was a “surprise”, confirms Dallapiccola. "The news - he explains toAdnKronos – was communicated to us this morning by the secretary. It is within the power of the minister to decide in this sense. And in fact, each of us works with his team”. What to say then? "We are always available if someone needs us, otherwise it's fine," concludes Dallapiccola. The decision, adds the cardiologist Antonio Colombo, “it wasn't anticipated, it came a bit out of the blue. I think it's intuitive that it's a surprise, and surprises don't always have a positive character. Perhaps we would like to know if we have done something that was not right, like all schoolchildren when the professor takes something away from them. But maybe it's just a turnover: the bosses change, the team changes. In that sense, it's not a 100 percent surprise."

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ISS President Walter Ricciardi, whose feeling with the Minister Giulia Grillo never blossomed, most likely it will give rise to a 'public' tender along the lines of what happened with Li Bassi in Aifa.

For the AIFA presidency, the strongest candidate at the moment is Antonio Saitta, coordinator of the health councilors of the Conference of Regions and councilor in Piedmont. But the Regions have been postponing the choice for weeks because the candidacy fails to gather unanimous approval. Furthermore, a possible arrival of Saitta in Aifa would completely reopen the game for the new coordination of the Health commission which at this point could return to a center-right region. And then, how can Saitta play that role objectively, someone who in the name of savings denies treatment to the neediest?

And Garattini, offended by lese majesty, shouldn't complain given that he was appointed, together with the exhumed Bissoni, to the technical working table on drugs and medical devices.

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