“The official signing of the agreement for the University Polyclinic in Cosenza reveals a truth that I have been denouncing, quite isolated, for some time now. It is precisely one of the protagonists of the signing, the rector of the Unical Nicola Leone, who revealed it today with his public statement to the local press: “We managed to proceed quickly thanks to a rigorous planning and a scientific method”. With a broader reading: from the birth of the medical faculty in Cosenza, to the transfer of the cardiac surgery posts of the S.Anna to Cosenza, to the subtraction of funds for the new hospital in Catanzaro, to the concentration of large public healthcare and university investments in Cosenza, to the substantial killing of the healthcare system and the university of the regional capital, everything has long been about a scientific plan which, however, is now revealed to everyone. It is clear: we can no longer talk only about parochial claims!”. This was declared by Vincenzo Capellupo, Catanzaro city councilor.
“At Occhiuto’s inauguration in 2021 – the Catanzaro politician recalled – in front of the Sanctuary of San Francesco di Paola, Roberto Occhiuto and Nicola Leone closed a unique power agreement, as the rector himself publicly stated, perhaps the two forgot on that occasion that San Francesco is the patron saint of all Calabrians and not of their individual and private “visions”. To scientifically create this “virtuous” model it was chosen to empty and marginalize other territories, primarily Catanzaro. Because while in Cosenza 855 beds, impressive infrastructures and a further 45 million are announced to transform the Annunziata into a “citadel of health”, a deafening silence essentially falls on the Pugliese-Ciaccio, on the UMG Polyclinic and on the unfinished Dulbecco which, according to Occhiuto, was to be the largest hospital in the south on the other, you consciously slow down.”
According to Capellupo, “Occhiuto opens the legislature as he concluded it: offending territories, citizens and healthcare professionals, dividing Calabria rather than uniting and governing it. And even more serious, once the electoral campaign is over, is the complicit silence of politics, healthcare and the Catanzaro university, which in the face of this management and this plan remain, unfortunately, perhaps frightened but certainly silent and immobile. It is reasonable to think that someone is already dealing with “professional hospitality” in Cosenza for themselves and for their children or relatives? Are the people of Catanzaro right to think so?”
“The reality – concluded Capellupo – is simple: in Calabria, to study medicine, to practice the medical profession with adequate equipment and to be treated, you will have to go to Cosenza. If you get sick in Catanzaro, Crotone, Vibo or Reggio you are screwed, you have to die or emigrate to Cosenza. The progress of all the territories of Calabria is welcome but this is a result built on the skin of Catanzaro, of its excellent healthcare community and of the Calabrian patients, who deserve respect, equity, investments, healthcare quality and no planned cancellations and power pacts”.