More than 5,000 doctors and 12,000 nurses are lacking in the Italian emergency rooms, and the waiting times for hospitalization are getting longer and longer.
Organizational problems that have led in 10 years to a doubling of the mortality of patients forced to stay there, waiting for a place in the ward.
Quick decisions are needed to save them from the crisis they have "sunk into due to decades of programming errors."
This was reported by the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine (Simeu) which will take to the streets in Rome on November 17, near the Ministry of Health.
According to Simeu data, those discharged after obtaining treatment in the emergency room are now estimated to be 50% more than in the pre-pandemic.
The increase in the number of patient visits compared to the number of healthcare workers employed led to an increase in the workload per single professional from 25% to 50%.
Patients destined for hospitalization waiting for a bed arrive up to more than 800 a day in important regions such as Lazio, with over 600 people waiting for more than 24 hours.
And the increase in mortality in the emergency room over the last decade due to non-hospitalization has been over 100%.
"Emergency medicine urgency - explains Antonio Voza, Simeu National Secretary - operates in that very precious time that can make the difference between the life and death of a patient. A crucial task that requires trained specialists and leaves no room for improvisation and approximation ".
This is increasingly common due to the lack of personnel due to the flight of doctors and nurses from the emergency room and the consequent increasing use of outsourcing.
