Rome - Doctors in Lombardy, the Italian
region hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic, have criticised
local officials for their handling of the crisis and said the
mistakes they made should be a lesson for everyone.
More than 16 500 people have died from the coronavirus in
Italy, the biggest death count in the world, with Lombardy
accounting for 55% of the tally. The region also accounts for
39% of the country's 132 547 confirmed cases.
The particularly large death toll in Lombardy, the
wealthiest region in Italy, has raised eyebrows, with local
officials suggesting that both the high urban density and
considerable elderly population might have played a part.
However, a letter signed by leading doctors, including the
heads of 11 provincial health authorities within Lombardy,
suggested failures within the local health system contributed to
the greatest emergency Italy has faced since World War Two.
Amongst the failings they highlighted were a lack of
protective clothing for medical staff - a regular source of
anger since the outbreak emerged on February 21.
"This determined the death of many colleagues, the illness
of many of them and the probable and involuntary spread of the
contagion, especially in the early stages of the epidemic," said
the letter, which was posted on the website of the national
federation of doctors, surgeons and orthodontists.
There was no immediate comment from Lombardy officials.
The medics bemoaned an "absence of strategies" in tackling
the crisis, a lack of good data and limited testing as the virus
spread. This "greatly underestimated the number of patients and,
to a lesser extent, the number of dead", they wrote.
While the neighbouring region of Veneto engaged in
widespread testing in a known coronavirus hotspot, Lombardy only
tested the seriously ill arriving for treatment in hospital,
saying they did not have the capacity for wider checks.
CARE HOMES
The letter took aim at the management of nursing homes,
where hundreds of people have died without ever being tested.
The doctors said in the province of Bergamo alone,
600 of the 6 000 pensioners under care had died.
Italy's health ministry announced on Tuesday it was sending
inspectors to Milan's largest nursing home, Pio Albergo
Trivulzio, where more than 100 people have died since March.
A photograph of nine bodies in the home's mortuary was
published on the front page of La Repubblica newspaper on
Tuesday, with another showing its chapel full of coffins.
Lombardy's top health official, Giulio Gallera, rejected
media allegations that the region had allowed hospitals to send
infected patients to local care homes without proper protection
in an effort to free up badly needed space in packed wards.
"We always acted for the good of everyone in a extraordinary
emergency and we will not let anyone cast aspersions on the
serious, rigorous work we have carried out," he said on
Facebook. He did not refer to the doctors' letter.
Italy's healthcare system is decentralized with regions
having control over the money that goes to hospitals within
their own borders. Lombardy has focused on developing a dual
private-public network of high-performing hospitals, but critics
say this was done at the expense of grassroots medical care.
"Public health and on-the-ground medicine have been
neglected and weakened in our region for many years," the
doctors said.
"It is going to be difficult to recover from this situation
at the moment," the wrote, adding that as a starting point, the
region should undertake large scale testing of health workers.