Forza Italia Discusses S. Pellegrino Hospital Management Experiments

On Friday evening, a meeting titled: «Hospital Management Experiments. What is the Future for the S. Pellegrino Hospital?» was held at the Bachelet Hall, organized by the Provincial Coordination for Health of Forza Italia.

The presence of Director General Colombo among the audience caused surprise, while Foschini, the city coordinator of Forza Italia, was not seen.

In his first speech, De Luca, consulant of the A.O, indicated the compatibility between economic and health aspects as the goal of the strategic plan, given the substantial operating losses recorded last year and those forecasted for 2001.

Partly due to the outflow of residents from Mantova, who also prefer to seek basic specialty care outside the province.

Objectives and Experiments of the Strategic Plan

«The strategic plan is a strong reorganization – continued De Luca – but with some key points, including the safeguarding of employment levels.

The management experiments, included in the plan as hypotheses and made explicit with its approval, are tools to address resource scarcity.»

Loredana Luzzi, regional official of the Directorate General of Health, reviewed the legislation that introduced the possibility of public/private collaborations, starting from the delegation law of 1991 up to D.L. 229/99, which establishes the requirement of a majority public share in healthcare management experiments.

Professor Zangrandi, economist at the Università di Parma, discussed the aims of public service, efficiency, and appropriateness of healthcare consumption, reaffirming that experimenting does not mean privatizing, since the majority remains public and evaluation is up to the Region.

He then mentioned the possibility for municipalities to form consortiums to join the A.O, concluding with a call to be pragmatic.

Finally, Lucchini spoke, clarifying: «Experiments are linked to feasibility studies, and the plan allocates six months for their implementation.

We are making good progress on Volta, while for S. Pellegrino things are still in the early stages.

There is a severe resource shortage, and experimentation is one of the tools, provided by the regional health plan, to address it.»