Summer is here, and the Circolo closes 50 beds

 There are one hundred fewer beds, half at the Circolo Hospital in Varese, and the remaining at the Del Ponte Hospital, with few closures in Luino, and none in Cittiglio and Cuasso.

In this delicate situation, the hospital authorities in Varese and the trade unions have come to an agreement over the holiday plan, which is in force from today, 1 June. Those most affected are medicines and surgery, where the rate of operations will have to slow down, particularly the scheduled ones. The closure will be gradual, and will involve groups of departments, some today, some in the middle of June, and others on 1 July. The bulk will be concentrated in August.

There was practically no alternative to this solution; there is a peremptory law that forces companies to allow holidays, or pay fines. “If we hadn’t signed the agreement, it would have put the staff, who have a right to holidays, and have already booked them, in difficulty. The concern remains, however, that the hospital in Varese will not be able to respond to the needs of the people adequately. It is not a question of holidays, but of the number of staff: the employees have been cut to the bone. It’s necessary, therefore, to have certain answers from the politicians: they need to say clearly what type of hospital this is. We can’t expect the Circolo to be considered in the same way as other hospitals in the region; it has specialties of excellence and an emergency department that works extremely quickly.”

The difficulties that the Circolo is going through were recently explained also by the head physician in the orthopaedic clinic, Paolo Cherubino. “We’re genuinely at our limit; there’s no staff, and those working have to follow the cases that come in from the emergency department. I’ve been writing to the managers for a long time, to understand what type of hospital we have in Varese. I’ve asked politicians and the Region to tell us what hospital we have in Varese, one that is there just when necessary, or one of excellence.