"We came to the recruitment of doctors in Cuba because Calabrian health is collapsing, but the problem of the recruitment of doctors is a problem that all the other Italian regions also have. Even more is Calabria, which has a system unattractive health care, in which many open-ended competitions - and we are banning many - have gone deserted ".
So Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria Region, in an interview with Radio 24.
"We have hired all the trainees in our power - added Occhiuto - but they are not enough, so I risked having to close hospitals and first aid departments. I cannot sit idly by: a single life saved thanks to some doctor in addition in the hospital it is worth more than a thousand controversies. We will do other open-ended competitions, and we will try to insert inventiveness so that these can be more attractive. Our goal is to hire Italian and Calabrian doctors as much as possible: Cubans will not take away a single place of work to our white coats. But in the meantime the emergency must be managed, and the citizens' right to health must be guaranteed ".
"And I would like to say - underlines the president of the Calabria Region - that these Cuban doctors will not earn more than their Italian colleagues: on the contrary, the average company cost for a doctor in our country is 6700 euros per month, much higher than what we will pay to the state company of the Cuban government ".
"The alternative would have been the one that many Regions are practicing, and unfortunately also Calabria in recent months, namely that of resorting to temporary employment companies that provide doctors at a cost sometimes of 1000 euros per day, therefore 30 thousand euro per month. It is an unacceptable situation. I have decided that the hospitals must remain open anyway, and I am happy to have entered into this agreement ".