A southern Italian region that is struggling to attract doctors to staff its badly managed, underfunded and mafia-infiltrated hospitals will fly in nearly 500 Cuban doctors.
Roberto Occhiuto, the governor of Calabria in the toe of Italy, announced the deal with the Cuban government to hire up to 497 doctors to avoid hospital closures in the region.
Announcing his surprise move in a video, Occhiuto said he had appealed to Calabrian doctors working outside the region to come home and “lend a hand”, but when the region had advertised in Italy, “no one applied”.
Cuban doctors were well trained and had proved their skills when a group came to Italy at the height of the Covid crisis to treat patients, he said.
The staff who show up in Calabria will replace Italian doctors put off by stifling red tape, incompetent, politically appointed local managers, corruption and mafia clans which fix contracts to syphon off cash, meaning patients are left on stretchers in A&E for days due to a lack of beds.
Massimo Scura, who managed the region’s health care from 2015 to 2018, claimed he succeeded in hiring new doctors to Calabria but said none would agree to go to one town — Locri — where the hospital was controlled by the Calabrian ‘NDrangheta mafia.
“One doctor was killed by the mafia for trying to change things and a hospital director who simply tried to move nurses from one ward to another was told he couldn’t,” said Scura.
Nicola Altiero, a senior Italian anti-mafia investigator, said in February that ‘NDrangheta control over Calabrian hospitals meant made men were guaranteed priority treatment by doctors who were often selected for their roles by the mob itself.
“I discovered a doctor who was checking accounts for the health system in the city of Reggio Calabria was part of the mafia,” said Scura.
Since leaving the job, Scura has found himself on trial accused of mishandling Calabrian health funds, but claimed the accusations were part of a “vendetta” against him by crooks he had exposed.
Due to its poor record for book-keeping and saving lives, Calabria’s health system has been run directly from Rome since 2010 rather than by regional managers.
“That has added a layer of red tape which has also slowed down the hiring of new doctors,” said Anna Sergi, a Calabria-born professor of criminology who teaches at the University of Essex.
She said that despite the management from Rome, chunks of the region’s annual €3.5 billion health budget were vanishing thanks to corruption.
“It’s the most cash-intensive public sector activity in the region and proves lucrative for the mafia and old fashioned white-collar crime,” she said.
Francesco Aiello, a professor of political economy at the University of Calabria, said that the accounts at Reggio Calabria’s city health department were in such disarray it had been unable to produce an annual budget.
“You get cases of invoices to suppliers being paid twice,” he said.
“That is not something 500 Cuban doctors can fix. Maybe 500 Cuban managers would be better.”
Hopefully they will have a chance to stay permanently. The situation in Cuba is daunting
based cuba
Cuban doctors are basically slaves for Cuban income. They keep a tiny portion of what they make, and the state takes the rest.
For a supposedly socialist paradise country, it sure likes to oppress it’s people
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A southern Italian region that is struggling to attract doctors to staff its badly managed, underfunded and mafia-infiltrated hospitals will fly in nearly 500 Cuban doctors.
Roberto Occhiuto, the governor of Calabria in the toe of Italy, announced the deal with the Cuban government to hire up to 497 doctors to avoid hospital closures in the region.
Announcing his surprise move in a video, Occhiuto said he had appealed to Calabrian doctors working outside the region to come home and “lend a hand”, but when the region had advertised in Italy, “no one applied”.
Cuban doctors were well trained and had proved their skills when a group came to Italy at the height of the Covid crisis to treat patients, he said.
The staff who show up in Calabria will replace Italian doctors put off by stifling red tape, incompetent, politically appointed local managers, corruption and mafia clans which fix contracts to syphon off cash, meaning patients are left on stretchers in A&E for days due to a lack of beds.
Massimo Scura, who managed the region’s health care from 2015 to 2018, claimed he succeeded in hiring new doctors to Calabria but said none would agree to go to one town — Locri — where the hospital was controlled by the Calabrian ‘NDrangheta mafia.
“One doctor was killed by the mafia for trying to change things and a hospital director who simply tried to move nurses from one ward to another was told he couldn’t,” said Scura.
Nicola Altiero, a senior Italian anti-mafia investigator, said in February that ‘NDrangheta control over Calabrian hospitals meant made men were guaranteed priority treatment by doctors who were often selected for their roles by the mob itself.
“I discovered a doctor who was checking accounts for the health system in the city of Reggio Calabria was part of the mafia,” said Scura.
Since leaving the job, Scura has found himself on trial accused of mishandling Calabrian health funds, but claimed the accusations were part of a “vendetta” against him by crooks he had exposed.
Due to its poor record for book-keeping and saving lives, Calabria’s health system has been run directly from Rome since 2010 rather than by regional managers.
“That has added a layer of red tape which has also slowed down the hiring of new doctors,” said Anna Sergi, a Calabria-born professor of criminology who teaches at the University of Essex.
She said that despite the management from Rome, chunks of the region’s annual €3.5 billion health budget were vanishing thanks to corruption.
“It’s the most cash-intensive public sector activity in the region and proves lucrative for the mafia and old fashioned white-collar crime,” she said.
Francesco Aiello, a professor of political economy at the University of Calabria, said that the accounts at Reggio Calabria’s city health department were in such disarray it had been unable to produce an annual budget.
“You get cases of invoices to suppliers being paid twice,” he said.
“That is not something 500 Cuban doctors can fix. Maybe 500 Cuban managers would be better.”
Hopefully they will have a chance to stay permanently. The situation in Cuba is daunting
based cuba
Cuban doctors are basically slaves for Cuban income. They keep a tiny portion of what they make, and the state takes the rest.
For a supposedly socialist paradise country, it sure likes to oppress it’s people
Edit; people seem unable to Google
https://share.america.gov/the-truth-about-cubas-medical-missions/
Is Italy still considered a first-world country? Lmao.