San Pellegrino Hospital Crisis: Council Criticizes Service Cuts and Delays

A “mutilated” hospital. The tone of the document condemning “the concerning situation” of the San Pellegrino Hospital in Castiglione delle Stiviere is heavy, signed in recent days by the City Council of the town. The text talks about “mutilated hospital services,” a “radical and unjustified turnaround on enhancement projects,” and emphasizes the “risks of an unacceptable decline in the quality of services.”

Key points of the complaint about the hospital situation

Ten months after the appointment of the new management — the councilors write — following previous commitments towards the quick realization of the Castiglione Department, which was to include Cardiology, Coronary Unit, and Traumatology service, and after promises to construct the already financed new wing of the hospital, we notice an improper U-turn justified by budget needs.

Cardiology requires a coronary unit staffed with appropriate personnel to accommodate critical patients, and we wonder if the aim is to compensate for the loss of these essential services by allocating some beds for Traumatology-Orthopedics at San Pellegrino, thus cancelling the construction of the new wing near the helipad.

Impact on hospital enhancement and resources

“An enhancement of the hospital,” the councilors continue, “would benefit the Hospital Company‘s finances, curbing the emigration of patients to nearby hospital facilities. If the enhancement of San Pellegrino is halted due to budget issues, urgent action is the sale of the premises of the former psychiatric judicial hospital in via Ordanino, to generate significant resources to be allocated to this purpose.”