Castiglione Hospital Sale Sparks Urgent Public Protest and Council Demand

“The fate of Castiglione Hospital has been sealed, but we will fight so that the population is not deprived of very important services. That is why we urgently demand the convening of an open city council meeting on healthcare,”

said Luca Placidi, president of the committee for the safeguarding of hospital facilities in Alto Mantovano, speaking out again to comment on the rumors the committee has learned regarding the hospital.

“It seems certain that the project of the Ospedali Riuniti is moving forward strongly, and that the Castiglione facility, like the other peripheral ones, is destined to disappear, or at least to be reduced. The coronary unit will no longer be operational,” Placidi stated, “along with the DEA and the new wing.”

This, he added, represents a waste of public money: “Three months ago, investments were made for development, but now there is demobilization, putting the presence of hospital staff at risk and creating a disaster for the territory.” Placidi also promises some popular initiatives: “The decisions that have been made—and which seem now to be unavoidable—are directly opposed to Law 31 of 1997 (the law that established the hospital centers and proposed their enhancement) and to the full three-year plan that was approved.”

“This is certainly a detrimental choice for Castiglione and completely wrong,” he warned. “There will be repercussions at every level—administrative and political—for this outrageous situation. The risk is a genuine popular uprising: hospital budgets cannot be balanced with a few days’ wipeout or by building a cathedral that leaves the outskirts in the desert.”

He thus calls for the urgent convening of an open city council in Castiglione, where the leaders of Poma should be invited to explain what they plan to do for Castiglione’s future.”