Salerno Doctors Halt night Shifts, Citing Deteriorating Healthcare Conditions
Salerno, Italy – Doctors providing medical guard service in the Salerno region have refused to continue night rounds, escalating a protest over what they describe as a critical decline in healthcare provisions for peripheral and coastal communities. The decision,described as “painful but unavoidable,” comes after the closure of a nighttime continuity of care service led to increased strain on emergency rooms and a perceived disregard for both patient and physician well-being.
The protest spotlights longstanding issues within Salerno’s healthcare system, notably in internal and coastal areas where guard doctors routinely face inadequate resources and inappropriate workloads. According to a local physician, the situation “worsened after the closing of the night psaut,” with the continuity of care service increasingly substituting for the emergency room, “going beyond its original functions.” This shift, the doctor stated, creates “a load that weighs on professionals and citizens, left in a condition of precariousness that has no justifications.”
Dr. Maiore,a spokesperson for the protesting doctors,characterized the problem as “not only serious,but fierce,” and criticized what he called institutional inertia. “For years they have repeated that doctors have been missing, who have been made calls, which are being activated. But they are only words.There is no desire to really invest in the essentials for this territory,” he said.
The doctors previously maintained service even during a complete water interruption, but now assert the deteriorating conditions pose an unacceptable risk to public health. “We can no longer accept similar conditions, which put everyone’s health at risk,” a doctor explained, emphasizing the necessity of halting night rounds to force a response from authorities. The situation impacts residents of Salerno’s peripheral and coastal areas, who rely on the medical guard service for after-hours care.
