Can the Santa Croce become the health citadel of the area? – The guide

Cuneo – “Hospital and territory: is a new healthcare possible?”. This is the title of the “online” conference hosted “remotely” today at the premises of La Guida.
“Ours wants to be a contribution in full compliance with the prerogatives of the Municipal Council of Cuneo, which will have to decide which site is to plan the construction of the new hospital, the new provincial hub, to open a discussion on what will be done with the site that will not be chosen for that work. The one presented is a project, a study on the Santa Croce area that represents a suggestion ”he opened Beppe Delfino of the civic list of the majority Borgna “Centro per Cuneo” which organized the meeting
“The debate on the future hospital is fundamental for the city, but not only for the whole province. There has been a great transformation in the city of Cuneo in recent years and this is the area to think about for the future, ”he said Ezio Bernardi, director of La Guida, who moderated the debate.
During the meeting for the first time a proposal on the Santa Croce area was presented by Stefano Quaglia, former mayor of Saluzzo and a great enthusiast and expert in provincial health policy. The proposal seems to give for certain that the choice for the construction of the new hospital falls on the site of the Carle di Confreria hospital and therefore directs its indications in the recovery of the central area of ​​the city of the current Santa Croce, decreasing its current cubature and using the rest for other health and training functions. The whole area would be divided into three areas and would include the area from Corso Monviso to Via Quintino Sella, i.e. also involving Piazza Cavalieri di Vittorio Venet, a new road would also be established or rather the construction of Via Matteotti would be continued. The area closest to Corso Monviso would become a school and university campus for Medicine with 3,000 / 5,000 students on Cuneo, a congress auditorium and also housing for students. All for 20,000 square meters with 450 parking spaces. In the second area, the one next to block E of the operating rooms which would be transformed into a health house, a new block would be built for territorial medicine in a single location and one for general practitioners’ clinics. It would be 12,000 square meters for the district’s territorial medicine. The third area, that of the INPS square, could become an oasis of regeneration, a green area of ​​more than 3,000 square meters. “We are thinking about the future – said Quaglia – and the central idea is the new organization and centrality of territorial medicine, which Covid has also suggested to us. And then a new opportunity for the whole lower Piedmont of a university center for medicine which becomes a great resource for Cuneo “.
The various speakers spoke on the subject.
Fulvio Moirano, president of the new Cuneo Hospital Foundation: “At best, it will take at least 10 years before the Santa Croce area is abandoned. At Santa Croce it is impossible to build a single hospital that absorbs the Carle and that is modern, it is old and it is necessary to find a new space, I don’t know if Confreria is the best, but it is better than Santa Croce. Santa Croce can raise cash because it is owned by the Region and the Hospital. Al Santa Croce could become the seat of the former Villa and via Carlo Boggio with integrated action by Aso and Asl Cn1. Via Carlo Boggio has residential developments, Santa Croce has co-housing and health education. I wouldn’t bet on the University because university settlements are shrinking. Resources? In the coming months there will be more resources than ideas, I suppose, there will no longer be such favorable moments to look for resources and we cannot waste time ”.
Giuseppe Guerra, president of the Order of Doctors of the Province of Cuneo: “Covid has invested all hospitals and territorial medicine centers, making it clear that hospitals did not have paths. If you create new hospitals you have to do with the paths and integrate the territory and the hospital. An easily accessible health citadel in the city center that leads to a stronger territorial reality to give answers to citizens is an excellent solution. If university arrives it would be the icing on the cake ”.
Giandomenico Genta, president of the Crc Foundation: “The suggestion on the reuse of the Santa Croce is very interesting. From the point of view of health we must think of the people, but we cannot think of having a hospital under the house, reason not as citizens of Cuneo but as citizens of the province of Granda and even more ”.
Marco Gallo, Mayor of Busca and president of the Conference of Mayors of the Asl Cn1: “It will be necessary to evaluate the viability well so that it becomes a local hospital for the benefit and at the disposal of a very large area. Over 30 thousand hospitalizations of these 6 thousand of Cuneo and these data confirm that Cuneo is a reference for a very large territory. There is the problem of funds and perhaps this is the right time. In the northern quadrant of our local health authority, the rest of the territory must also be worked on ”.
Salvatore Brugaletta, general director of ASL Cn1: “I would like to make suggestions and a dream too. The Santa Croce is hospital of the highest quality and of great attractiveness with excellent healthcare. Territorial health care must get out of the current logic and enter the vacated spaces of the Santa Croce in a citadel of health, leaving via Carlo Boggio and Corso Francia. I am also thinking of an integrated center for chronic conditions, new RSAs and new spaces as well as everything else. By decommissioning and capitalizing the two offices, already similar, to housing organizations. There are spaces at the Santa Croce to provide guesthouses and hotel assistance for those arriving from outside, and to think of it as a university center, not just a medical one ”.
Corrado Bedogni, general manager of the Aso Santa Croce e Carle di Cuneo: “The new hospital is a closer perspective and steps have been taken. I am a lucky CEO because I get more compliments than complaints from patients. We must immediately talk about the abandoned headquarters because there are too many areas that have been abandoned for too long. The Municipality will decide but the proposals heard are interesting because the territorial health activities can be there while the hospital must have a single seat, no longer as now. I was general manager of ASL Cn1 and I know that there are services that need to be compacted in a single location with other activities, without fear of desertification. To give hospital-territory continuity, it is good that there is only one person for Asl and Aso with a single management per intervention unit between the territory and hospital or rather hospitals ”.
The conclusions of the mayor of Cuneo and president of the Province, Federico Borgna: “This must be the first suggestion that comes in the broad debate on the future of local, provincial and other healthcare. We are organizing organizations and health care organizations we must always keep in mind that the center of the decision is the person-patient. The choice of place must have the patient and the people who revolve around the patient; then the decision must take into account the broad territorial value. Whatever the area must be infrastructured, one above all the Cuneo ring road. Today it would be complete to reach Confreria. The third aspect is to think about the city area. The former Santa Croce in the historic center has been an empty container for 60 years and we cannot think of the recurrence of such a situation. It takes at least 10 years but we have to compress the time to follow the important calls for urban regeneration. It will cost a lot to regenerate the abandoned area. We have to speed up the pace and we only have one shot to fire and we must not make mistakes ”.

“It is the beginning of a journey with many things to explore” concluded the director Bernardi.

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